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Perceptions of Development and Democratic Support: A Quantitative Study of the Relationship between Subjective Evaluations of Development and Attitudes towards Democracy

Lindberg, Erik LU (2025) SIMZ31 20251
Graduate School
Abstract
The relationship between development and democracy is robust and enjoys strong scholarly support. While research traditionally has favored country-level comparisons based on objective indicators when studying this relationship, this study crafts an individual-level, perceptions-based index of development, and two measures of support for democracy as a regime type, to approach the relationship. These measures are used to first study how they are impacted by a set of demographic factors, after which they are used to examine the relationship between development and democracy from a new angle. The study finds a broad and strong, but not universal, relationship between perceived level of development and support for democracy. Further, a number... (More)
The relationship between development and democracy is robust and enjoys strong scholarly support. While research traditionally has favored country-level comparisons based on objective indicators when studying this relationship, this study crafts an individual-level, perceptions-based index of development, and two measures of support for democracy as a regime type, to approach the relationship. These measures are used to first study how they are impacted by a set of demographic factors, after which they are used to examine the relationship between development and democracy from a new angle. The study finds a broad and strong, but not universal, relationship between perceived level of development and support for democracy. Further, a number of demographic factors are found to be significantly correlated with both perceived level of development and support for democracy. The findings are especially evident for certain groups in developed countries, aligning well with theoretical expectations that “losers” of recent trajectories of development risk developing feelings of relative deprivation and perceptions of hierarchical loss which may spur decreasing support for democracy. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Lindberg, Erik LU
supervisor
organization
course
SIMZ31 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Perceptions of development, Support for democracy, Relative deprivation, Hierarchical loss, Statistical analysis
language
English
id
9198408
date added to LUP
2025-06-25 14:10:29
date last changed
2025-06-25 14:10:29
@misc{9198408,
  abstract     = {{The relationship between development and democracy is robust and enjoys strong scholarly support. While research traditionally has favored country-level comparisons based on objective indicators when studying this relationship, this study crafts an individual-level, perceptions-based index of development, and two measures of support for democracy as a regime type, to approach the relationship. These measures are used to first study how they are impacted by a set of demographic factors, after which they are used to examine the relationship between development and democracy from a new angle. The study finds a broad and strong, but not universal, relationship between perceived level of development and support for democracy. Further, a number of demographic factors are found to be significantly correlated with both perceived level of development and support for democracy. The findings are especially evident for certain groups in developed countries, aligning well with theoretical expectations that “losers” of recent trajectories of development risk developing feelings of relative deprivation and perceptions of hierarchical loss which may spur decreasing support for democracy.}},
  author       = {{Lindberg, Erik}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Perceptions of Development and Democratic Support: A Quantitative Study of the Relationship between Subjective Evaluations of Development and Attitudes towards Democracy}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}