Ideological Congruence and Satisfaction with Democracy: Case Studies of Australia and New Zealand
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A growing body of studies has examined the ideological congruence between citizens and political parties and found that those citizens whose ideology close to the winning party tend to be satisfied with democracy in their country. We extend the causal story of ideological congruence and satisfaction with democracy to Australia and New Zealand. In addition to testing for the direct effect of various socio-psychological factors on citizen satisfaction, we investigate whether the effect of ideological congruence is more significant in specific political system. We find that ideological congruence is likely to have a larger impact on satisfaction with democracy in New Zealand. Our empirical evidence confirms the extant literature but also suggests that ideological closeness matters most with political system that prioritizes representation. This result implies the contextual effect of majoritarian and proportional systems on the functioning of democracy.
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Fields of Research::44 - Human society::4408 - Political science::440809 - New Zealand government and politics
Fields of Research::44 - Human society::4408 - Political science::440801 - Australian government and politics