Dissatisfied, uninformed or both? Democratic satisfaction, political knowledge and the acceptance of clientelism in a new democracy

Gherghina, S. , Saikkonen, I. and Bankov, P. (2022) Dissatisfied, uninformed or both? Democratic satisfaction, political knowledge and the acceptance of clientelism in a new democracy. Democratization, 29(2), pp. 211-231. (doi: 10.1080/13510347.2021.1947250)

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Abstract

In many countries, voters are targeted with clientelistic and programmatic electoral offers. Existing research explores the demand side of clientelism, but we still know very little about what determines voters’ acceptance of clientelistic and programmatic electoral offers. This article builds a novel theoretical framework on the role that democratic dissatisfaction and political knowledge play in shaping voters’ acceptance of different types of electoral offers. We test the implications of the theory with a survey experiment conducted after the 2019 local elections in Bulgaria. Our results show that low-knowledge voters and those who are dissatisfied with the performance of democracy and democratic institutions are more likely to accept clientelistic offers from politicians. The findings contribute to the literature on electoral clientelism and political attitudes.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:This research was funded by the Academy of Finland (Grant 316897).
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Bankov, Dr Petar and Gherghina, Dr Sergiu
Authors: Gherghina, S., Saikkonen, I., and Bankov, P.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
Journal Name:Democratization
Publisher:Taylor & Francis
ISSN:1351-0347
ISSN (Online):1743-890X
Published Online:07 July 2021
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2021 The Authors
First Published:First published in Democratization 29(2): 211-231
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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