Citizen Support for Democratic and Autocratic Regimes

The book examines citizens’ attitudes towards the political system in which they live. Its focus is the comparison of such attitudes between citizens living in democracies and citizens living in autocracies. It develops a universal theoretical model to explain citizen attitudes towards the political system that can be applied to both democracies and autocracies and that takes into account both characteristics of the individual citizen and characteristics of the political system as explanatory factors. Its empirical analysis covers more than 100 democracies and autocracies worldwide, providing generalizable insights on how citizens view their political system and on why they do so. In identifying the factors crucial in determining citizens’ attitudes, the book has clear implications for practitioners interested in supporting democracy across the globe.