Political Support in Flux

This chapter illustrates the goals and the research questions of this book, its theoretical framework and the empirical strategy. The volume aims to explain changes and cross-national differences in political support, understood as citizens’ evaluations of democracy and its main representative institutions, using countries’ contextual characteristics related to the inputs of the political system—the institutional format and its mechanics—and its outputs—the quality of the process, economic performance and economic redistribution. Moreover, it emphasizes the importance of citizens’ social and political characteristics in producing gaps in satisfaction with democracy and trust in institutions. Finally, the volume explores how micro- and macro-level factors are intertwined and linked to political support over time and across countries.