Low Hopes, Bad Democracy? A Tale of Unexpected Winners and Losers

A great amount of research has noted the existence of a gap between winners and losers in relation to satisfaction with democracy (SWD). As stated by Craig et al. (2006, 579), “winners and losers do not always respond with equal enthusiasm either to the election outcome, or to the institutions and processes through which that outcome was rendered.” One aspect of the winner–loser gap that has been overlooked is the impact of citizens’ expectations and the strength of these expectations on their level of satisfaction with democracy. More precisely, what can we expect from unexpected winners and losers? Are individuals on the losing side less dissatisfied when they recognize their favourite party was likely to be defeated at the polls? Does experiencing a surprise victory leads to a boost in SWD? Leiter et al. (2020) have claimed that “when faced with a reality that does not comport to their established beliefs, citizens may react quite negatively—an increasingly concerning phenomenon in modern democracies.” However, the potential association between (unfulfilled) expectations and attitudes towards democracy has been given almost no attention (but see Umit 2020).

Faculty Supervisor:

Ruth Dassonneville

Student:

Partner:

Sciences Po

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

Université de Montréal

Program: