Abstract
Previous research has shown that positive perceptions of government performance are linked to higher levels of citizens’ support for democracy. However, the policy response to the COVID-19 crisis presented a unique paradox as relative success in preventing the virus spread depended on expanding executive powers, often at the cost of individual freedoms. Exploring this paradox, we investigate whether the link between perceptions of government performance and support for democracy holds in a situation where positive performance essentially means a restriction of freedoms. Using original survey data from seven European countries, we show that notwithstanding the democratic sacrifices, people with positive evaluations of the government’s response are more likely to maintain support for the democratic system. Nevertheless, people weighed responses to the health domain more heavily than to the economic domain, suggesting that the output legitimacy – democratic support link varies across domain-specific evaluations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | European Political Science Review |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 13 Nov 2024 |
Funding
The data were collected for the SOLID research project (\u201CPolicy Crisis and Crisis Politics, Sovereignty, Solidarity and Identity in the EU Post-2008\u201D) financed by EU Grant Agreement 810356 \u2013 ERC-2018-SyG (SOLID). We want to thank our colleagues at the European University Institute (EUI), the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE), the University of Milan (UNIMI), and the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation for their involvement in the preparation of the survey questionnaire and for feedback on earlier versions of this paper.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| European Commission | 810356 – ERC-2018-SyG |
| European Commission |