Pablo Christmann | GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (original) (raw)
Papers by Pablo Christmann
This study tests the links between economic performance, democratic quality and satisfaction with... more This study tests the links between economic performance, democratic quality and satisfaction with democracy (SWD) at multiple levels. By analysing a time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) dataset of 57 democracies between 1990 and 2014, it finds the two types of performance matter almost equally: countries with good democratic and economic records tend to show higher levels of SWD than countries without them. Over time, an improvement in ‘objective’ democratic and economic conditions is shown to be related to increasing levels of national SWD. The second part of the study reconfirms these relationships at the individual level by analysing survey data from the “Europeans' understandings and evaluations of democracy” special module of the sixth round of the European Social Survey. It shows that respondents' evaluations of the economy and democracy are strongly related to their SWD. Finally, it demonstrates that the effect of objective democratic and economic performances on SWD is mediated by peoples' evaluations of them.
This study tests the links between political and economic performance and satisfaction with democ... more This study tests the links between political and economic performance and satisfaction with democracy (SWD) in Spain. Contrary to the dominant theoretical paradigm that explains the aggregate evolution of and the individual level differences in SWD mainly by means of economic factors, we present evidence that evaluations of the political process are equally relevant to account for both changes in individuals' SWD over time and the evolution of SWD at the national level. Unlike most existing literature, this study supports its argument by combining analyses of a micro-level panel dataset (CIUPANEL) and of a pooled aggregate-level panel dataset based on the Spanish samples in the Eurobarometer and the Latinobarómetro between 1986 and 2014.
Consensual-pluralistic institutional features of representative democracies have traditionally be... more Consensual-pluralistic institutional features of representative democracies have traditionally been associated with satisfaction with democracy (SWD). However, more recent studies report contradictory results on the effects of some of these institutional determinants on SWD. This article confirms these puzzling findings by showing that electoral proportionality increases SWD while other pluralistic factors such as government fractionalization produce the opposite effect. We illustrate this duality of counteracting effects by expanding the number of cases under study to different regions of the world in a comprehensive TSCS sample of 58 democracies between 1990 and 2012. In the second part of the paper, we are able to reconfirm these findings at the individual level by employing survey data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems.
Articles in Professional Journals by Pablo Christmann
How can we explain the recent decline of trust in representative institutions of the EU in many o... more How can we explain the recent decline of trust in representative institutions of the EU in many of its Member States? This article presents evidence supporting the congruence hypothesis, according to which citizens have been extrapolating their increasing distrust in national institutions to the EU institutions. We also find that these contagion effects are produced by citizens’ evaluations of national governments. Furthermore, we show that these spillover effects from the national to the EU level tend to be stronger in situations of economic recession and political crisis. The only counterbalance to this contagion comes from citizens’ positive evaluation of EU performance. We test these general arguments based on a twofold panel analysis of the Spanish case, a country that has suffered a remarkable deterioration of political trust in a context of profound economic and political crisis, by analysing data from a micro-level panel study and 28 pooled surveys from the Eurobarometer between 1999 and 2015.
This study tests the links between economic performance, democratic quality and satisfaction with... more This study tests the links between economic performance, democratic quality and satisfaction with democracy (SWD) at multiple levels. By analysing a time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) dataset of 57 democracies between 1990 and 2014, it finds the two types of performance matter almost equally: countries with good democratic and economic records tend to show higher levels of SWD than countries without them. Over time, an improvement in ‘objective’ democratic and economic conditions is shown to be related to increasing levels of national SWD. The second part of the study reconfirms these relationships at the individual level by analysing survey data from the “Europeans' understandings and evaluations of democracy” special module of the sixth round of the European Social Survey. It shows that respondents' evaluations of the economy and democracy are strongly related to their SWD. Finally, it demonstrates that the effect of objective democratic and economic performances on SWD is mediated by peoples' evaluations of them.
This study tests the links between political and economic performance and satisfaction with democ... more This study tests the links between political and economic performance and satisfaction with democracy (SWD) in Spain. Contrary to the dominant theoretical paradigm that explains the aggregate evolution of and the individual level differences in SWD mainly by means of economic factors, we present evidence that evaluations of the political process are equally relevant to account for both changes in individuals' SWD over time and the evolution of SWD at the national level. Unlike most existing literature, this study supports its argument by combining analyses of a micro-level panel dataset (CIUPANEL) and of a pooled aggregate-level panel dataset based on the Spanish samples in the Eurobarometer and the Latinobarómetro between 1986 and 2014.
Consensual-pluralistic institutional features of representative democracies have traditionally be... more Consensual-pluralistic institutional features of representative democracies have traditionally been associated with satisfaction with democracy (SWD). However, more recent studies report contradictory results on the effects of some of these institutional determinants on SWD. This article confirms these puzzling findings by showing that electoral proportionality increases SWD while other pluralistic factors such as government fractionalization produce the opposite effect. We illustrate this duality of counteracting effects by expanding the number of cases under study to different regions of the world in a comprehensive TSCS sample of 58 democracies between 1990 and 2012. In the second part of the paper, we are able to reconfirm these findings at the individual level by employing survey data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems.
How can we explain the recent decline of trust in representative institutions of the EU in many o... more How can we explain the recent decline of trust in representative institutions of the EU in many of its Member States? This article presents evidence supporting the congruence hypothesis, according to which citizens have been extrapolating their increasing distrust in national institutions to the EU institutions. We also find that these contagion effects are produced by citizens’ evaluations of national governments. Furthermore, we show that these spillover effects from the national to the EU level tend to be stronger in situations of economic recession and political crisis. The only counterbalance to this contagion comes from citizens’ positive evaluation of EU performance. We test these general arguments based on a twofold panel analysis of the Spanish case, a country that has suffered a remarkable deterioration of political trust in a context of profound economic and political crisis, by analysing data from a micro-level panel study and 28 pooled surveys from the Eurobarometer between 1999 and 2015.