Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T21:31:49.600Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early-Adulthood Economic Experiences and the Formation of Democratic Support

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2022

Suthan Krishnarajan Open the ORCID record for Suthan Krishnarajan [Opens in a new window] ,
Jonathan Doucette Open the ORCID record for Jonathan Doucette [Opens in a new window]  and
David Andersen Open the ORCID record for David Andersen [Opens in a new window]
Suthan Krishnarajan
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
Jonathan Doucette
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
David Andersen*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
*
*Corresponding author. Email: dandersen@ps.au.dk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Do economic experiences early in life affect regime support later in life? Effects of recent economic performance on regime support are extensively studied, but lasting effects of individual-level economic experiences across the lifespan remain unexplored. We argue that in democracies and autocracies alike, economic experiences in early adulthood (that is, age eighteen to twenty-eight) are wired into people's memories and become important cues for their democratic support later in life. Having lived in a well-performing economy in a democracy increases democratic support throughout most of people's lives, whereas having lived in a well-performing economy in an autocracy decreases democratic support throughout most of people's lives. Using extensive survey data on support for democracy covering ninety-seven countries from 1994 to 2015, we find support for these propositions, demonstrating that economic experiences in early adulthood, conditional on the regime in place at the time, have strong, robust and lasting effects on democratic support.

Keywords

regime supporteconomic performance legitimacyearly-adulthood economic experiencespolitical socialization
Type
Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , April 2023 , pp. 387 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abadie, A et al. (2017) When Should You Adjust Standard Errors for Clustering? NBER Working Paper 24003, DOI: 10.3386/w24003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, RH Jr (2004) Economic growth, inequality and poverty: estimating the growth elasticity of poverty. World Development 32(12), 1989–2014.10.1016/j.worlddev.2004.08.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Afrobarometer (2015) Data from 1999 to 2015. Available from http://www.afrobarometer.org/data/merged-dataGoogle Scholar
Alwin, DF, Cohen, RL and Newcomb, TM (1991) Aging, Personality and Social Change: Attitude Persistence and Change over the Life-Span. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Americas Barometer (2014) Data from 2004–2014. Available from http://vanderbilt.edu/lapop/raw-data.phpGoogle Scholar
Anderson, CJ (2000) Economic voting and political context: a comparative perspective. Electoral Studies 19, 151–170.10.1016/S0261-3794(99)00045-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, CJ and Guillory, CA (1997) Political institutions and satisfaction with democracy: a cross-national analysis of consensus and majoritarian systems. American Political Science Review 91(1), 66–81.10.2307/2952259CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armingeon, K and Guthmann, K (2014) Democracy in crisis? The declining support for national democracy in European countries. European Journal of Political Research 53(3), 423–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asian Barometer (2014) Data from 2001 to 2014. Available from http://www.asianbarometer.org/data/data-releaseGoogle Scholar
Bartels, LM and Jackman, S (2014) A generational model of political learning. Electoral Studies 33, 7–18.10.1016/j.electstud.2013.06.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernhard, M and Karakoc, E (2007) Civil society and the legacies of dictatorship. World Politics 59(4), 539–567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernhard, M and Kubik, J (eds) (2014) Twenty Years after Communism: The Politics of Memory and Commemoration. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199375134.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, C, Miller, M and Rosato, S (2018) Boix–Miller–Rosato Dichotomous Coding of Democracy, 1800‒2015. Harvard Dataverse, v3. Available from https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/FJLMKTCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolt, J and van Zanden, JL (2020) Maddison Style Estimates of the Evolution of the World Economy. A New 2020 Update. Maddison Project Working Paper w15.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, B et al. (2005) The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Canache, D, Mondak, JJ and Seligson, MA (2001) Meaning and measurement in cross-national research on satisfaction with democracy. Public Opinion Quarterly 65(4), 506–528.10.1086/323576CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassani, A (2017) Social services to claim legitimacy: comparing autocracies’ performance. Contemporary Politics 23(3), 348–368.10.1080/13569775.2017.1304321CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Central and Eastern Eurobarometer (1997) Data from 1990 to 1997. Available from https://dbk.gesis.org/dbksearch/SDESC2_eng.asp?no=3648&search=Central%20and%20Eastern%20Eurobarometer&search2=&DB=EGoogle Scholar
Claassen, C (2020) Does public support help democracy survive? American Journal of Political Science 64(1), 118–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claassen, C and Magalhaes, PC (2021) Effective government and evaluations of democracy. Comparative Political Studies, 55(5), 869–894.Google Scholar
Clarke, H, Dutt, N and Kornberg, A (1993) The political economy of attitudes toward polity and society in Western European democracies. The Journal of Politics 55(4), 998–1021.Google Scholar
Davis, SJ and Von Wachter, T (2011) Recessions and the costs of job loss. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2, 1–55.10.1353/eca.2011.0016CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deaton, A (2005) Franco Modigliani and the Life-Cycle Theory of Consumption. Paper presented at the Convegno Internazionale Franco Modigliani, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome, 17–18 February.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dukalskis, A and Gerschewski, J (2017) What autocracies say (and what citizens hear): proposing four mechanisms of autocratic legitimation. Contemporary Politics 23(3), 251–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmenegger, P, Marx, P and Schraff, D (2017) Off to a bad start: unemployment and political interest during early adulthood. The Journal of Politics 79(1), 315–328.10.1086/688226CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Values Study (2015) Data from 1981–2010. Available from https://dbk.gesis.org/dbksearch/sdesc2.asp?no=4804&db=e&doi=10.4232/1.12253Google Scholar
Gerschewski, J (2013) The three pillars of stability: legitimation, repression, and co-optation in autocratic regimes. Democratization 20(1), 13–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giuliano, P and Spilimbergo, A (2014) Growing up in a recession. Review of Economic Studies 81(2), 787–817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haggard, S and Kaufman, R (1995) The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hofferbert, RI and Klingemann, H-D (1999) Remembering the bad old days: human rights, economic conditions, and democratic performance in transitional regimes. European Journal of Political Research 36(2), 155–174.10.1111/1475-6765.00466CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, R (1971) The silent revolution in Europe: intergenerational change in post-industrial societies. American Political Science Review 65(4), 991–1017.10.2307/1953494CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, R and Welzel, C (2010) Changing mass priorities: the link between modernization and democracy. Perspectives on Politics 8(2), 551–567.10.1017/S1537592710001258CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, MK (1989) The crystallization of orientations. In Barnes, SH, van Deth, JW and Kent Jennings, M (eds), Continuities in Political Action. Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter, 313‒348.Google Scholar
Kelly, NJ and Enns, PK (2010) Inequality and the dynamics of public opinion: the self-reinforcing link between economic inequality and mass preferences. American Journal of Political Science 54(4), 855–870.10.1111/j.1540-5907.2010.00472.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerr, N (2013) Popular evaluations of election quality in Africa: evidence from Nigeria. Electoral Studies 32(4), 819–837.10.1016/j.electstud.2013.02.010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirsch, H and Welzel, C (2019) Democracy misunderstood: authoritarian notions of democracy around the globe. Social Forces 98(1), 59–92.10.1093/sf/soy114CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knutsen, CH (2020) The Business Case for Democracy. V-Dem Working Paper Series, 111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knutsen, CH and Wegmann, S (2016) Is democracy about redistribution? Democratization 23(1), 164–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krishnarajan, S, Doucette, J and Andersen, D (2022) Replication Data for: ‘Early-Adulthood Economic Experiences and the Formation of Democratic Support’. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/GFCNG9, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:M8ncTFXQ/eZg/tc6Y3KxHw== [fileUNF]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krosnick, J and Alwin, DF (1989) Aging and susceptibility to attitude change. Personality and Social Psychology 57(3), 416–425.10.1037/0022-3514.57.3.416CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LaFrance, M and Cicchetti, C (1979) Perceived responsibility and blame for economic success and failure: social class and employment status comparisons. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 9(5), 466–475.10.1111/j.1559-1816.1979.tb02719.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latinobarometer (2015) Data from 1995 to 2015. Available from http://www.latinobarometro.org/latContents.jspGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Beck, MS and Stegmaier, M (2000) Economic determinants of electoral outcomes. Annual Review of Political Science 3, 183–219.10.1146/annurev.polisci.3.1.183CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linde, J and Ekman, J (2003) Satisfaction with democracy: a note on a frequently used indicator in comparative politics. European Journal of Political Research 42(3), 391–408.10.1111/1475-6765.00089CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucardi, A (2019) Strength in expectation: elections, economic performance, and authoritarian breakdown. Journal of Politics 81(2), 552–570.10.1086/701723CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magaloni, B (2006) Voting for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and its Demise in Mexico. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511510274CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margalit, Y (2013) Explaining social policy preferences: evidence from the Great Recession. American Political Science Review 107(1), 80–103.10.1017/S0003055412000603CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margalit, Y (2019) Political responses to economic shocks. Annual Review of Political Science 22, 277–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markus, GB (1979) The political environment and the dynamics of public attitudes: a panel study. American Journal of Political Science 23(2), 338–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mietzner, M (2018) Authoritarian elections, state capacity, and performance legitimacy: phases of regime consolidation and decline in Suharto's Indonesia. International Political Science Review 39(1), 83–96.10.1177/0192512116687139CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mishler, W and Rose, R (2007) Generation, age, and time: the dynamics of political learning during Russia's transformation. American Journal of Political Science 51(4), 822–834.10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00283.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mortimer, JT and Simmons, RG (1978) Adult socialization. Annual Review of Sociology 4, 421–454.10.1146/annurev.so.04.080178.002225CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neundorf, A (2010) Democracy in transition: a micro perspective on system change in post-socialist societies. Journal of Politics 72(4), 1096–1108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neundorf, A and Pop-Eleches, G (2020) Dictators and their subjects: authoritarian attitudinal effects and legacies. Comparative Political Studies 53(12), 1839–1860.10.1177/0010414020926203CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neundorf, A and Soroka, S (2018) The origins of redistributive policy preferences: political socialisation with and without a welfare state. West European Politics 41(2), 400–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neundorf, A, Gerschewski, J and Olar, R-G (2020) How inclusionary and exclusionary autocracies affect ordinary people. Comparative Political Studies 53(12), 1890–1925.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, RG and Jennings, MK (1991) Issues and inheritance in the formation of party identification. American Journal of Political Science 35(4), 970–988.10.2307/2111502CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, P (2011) Democratic Deficit: Critical Citizens Revisited. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511973383CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersen, MB et al. (2010) Deservingness versus values in public opinion on welfare: the automaticity of the deservingness heuristic. European Journal of Political Research 50(1), 24–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pop-Eleches, C and Pop-Eleches, G (2012) Targeted government spending and political preferences. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 7(3), 285–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pop-Eleches, G and Tucker, JA (2014) Communist socialization and post-communist economic and political attitudes. Electoral Studies 33, 77–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poterba, J, Venti, S and Wise, DA (2018) Longitudinal determinants of end-of-life wealth inequality. Journal of Public Economics 162, 78–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quaranta, M and Martini, S (2016) Does the economy really matter for satisfaction with democracy? Longitudinal and cross-country evidence from the European Union. Electoral Studies 42, 164–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhodes-Purdy, M (2017) Regime Support beyond the Balance Sheet: Participation and Policy Performance in Latin America. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781108332958CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sangster, RL and Reynolds, RW (1996) A test of Inglehart's socialization hypothesis for the acquisition of materialist/postmaterialist values: the influence of childhood poverty on adult values. Political Psychology 17(2), 253–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, D and Funk, C (1999) Evidence of the long-term persistence of adults’ political predispositions. The Journal of Politics 61(1), 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, D and Valentino, NA (1997) Politics matters: political events as catalysts for preadult socialization. American Political Science Review 91(1), 45–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, DO and Brown, C (2013) Childhood and adult political development. In Huddy, L, Sears, DO and Levy, JS (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 59–95.Google Scholar
Sigel, RA (1989) Introduction: persistence and change. In Siegel, RA (ed.), Political Learning in Adulthood: A Sourcebook of Theory and Research. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1–11.Google Scholar
Simpser, A, Slater, D and Wittenberg, J (2018) Dead but not gone: contemporary legacies of communism, imperialism, and authoritarianism. Annual Review of Political Science 21, 419–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steckenrider, JS and Cutler, NE (1989) Aging and adult political socialization: the importance of roles and role transitions. In Siegel, RA (ed.), Political Learning in Adulthood: A Sourcebook of Theory and Research. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 56–89.Google Scholar
Stevenson, R (2001) The economy and policy mood: a fundamental dynamic of democratic politics? American Journal of Political Science 45(3), 620–633.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoker, L and Bass, J (2011) Political socialization: ongoing questions and new directions. In Shapiro, RY and Jacobs, LR (eds), The Oxford Handbook of American Public Opinion and Media. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 453–471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stubager, R (2008) Education effects on authoritarian‒libertarian values: a question of socialization. British Journal of Sociology 59(2), 327–350.10.1111/j.1468-4446.2008.00196.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taber, CS and Lodge, M (2006) Motivated skepticism in the evaluation of political beliefs. American Journal of Political Science 50(3), 755–769.10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00214.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teorell, J and Hadenius, A (2006) Democracy without democratic values: a rejoinder to Welzel and Inglehart. Studies in Comparative International Development 41(3), 95–111.10.1007/BF02686238CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Economist (2017) Millennials across the World are Failing to Vote. The Economist, 4 February.Google Scholar
The Economist (2020) Southern Europe's Millennials Suffer Two Huge Crises by Their Mid-30s. The Economist, 16 April.Google Scholar
The Economist (2021) Latin American Democracy Is in Poor but Surprisingly Stable Health. The Economist, 9 October.Google Scholar
Tilley, J, Neundorf, A and Hobolt, SB (2018) When the pound in people's pocket matters: how changes to personal financial circumstances affect party choice. Journal of Politics 80(2), 555–569.10.1086/694549CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tremblay, M and Roger, A (1993) Individual, familial, and organizational determinants of career plateau. Group & Organization Management 18(4), 411–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trump, TM (1991) Value formation and postmaterialism: Inglehart's theory of value change reconsidered. Comparative Political Studies 24(3), 365–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Ham, C and Thomassen, J (2017) The myth of legitimacy decline: an empirical evaluation of trends in political support in established democracies. In van Ham, C et al (eds), Myth and Reality of the Legitimacy Crisis: Explaining Trends and Cross-National Differences in Established Democracies. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 17–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Visser, PS and Krosnick, JA (1998) Development of attitude strength over the life cycle: surge and decline. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75(6), 1389–1410.10.1037/0022-3514.75.6.1389CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weatherford, MS (1984) Economic ‘stagflation’ and public support for the political system. British Journal of Political Science 14(2), 187–205.10.1017/S0007123400003525CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weatherford, MS (1987) How does government performance influence political support? Political Behavior 9(1), 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welzel, C, Inglehart, R and Klingemann, H-D (2003) The theory of human development: a cross-cultural analysis. European Journal of Political Research 42(3), 341–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wlezien, C and Soroka, S (2021) Trends in public support for welfare spending: how the economy matters. British Journal of Political Science 51(1), 163–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank (2020) School Enrollment, Tertiary (% gross). Available from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.TER.ENRRGoogle Scholar
World Values Survey (2014) Data from 1981 to 2014. Available from https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jspGoogle Scholar
Zhao, D (2009) The Mandate of Heaven and performance legitimation in historical contemporary China. American Behavioral Scientist 53(3), 416–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Krishnarajan et al. Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/GFCNG9
Link
Supplementary material: File

Krishnarajan et al. supplementary material

Krishnarajan et al. supplementary material

Download Krishnarajan et al. supplementary material(File)
File 192.1 KB