The Center for Social Data Analytics Colloquium speaker: Eric Plutzer

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Title:  "How stable are views about democracy?"

Abstract: Two early political scientists (Lipset 1959, Easton 1965) argued that democratic regime stability requires substantial popular support for democracy.  Easton’s diffuse support directs attention to the basic “rules of the game” that specify how governments are selected, are held accountable, and derive legitimate authority.  Diffuse support has declined substantially in the US and other advanced democracies recently, a concerning development because declines in public support predict future declines in measures of democratic performance.  A parallel research program examines public understanding of democracy and citizens’ normative views – the value citizens place on government protection of individual liberty, citizens’ voice and agency in selecting leaders and influencing policy, accountability systems and the rule of law. Our larger research agenda examines how democracy values serve as yardsticks that citizens use to evaluate democratic performance. When performance falls short of ideals (a “democratic deficit”), does this erode diffuse support?

This paper examines the stability of democracy attitudes in the US, examining measures of diffuse support and measures of citizens’ normative values.  The presentation will introduce our data – based on pooling five two-wave panel surveys with durations of 6 to 34 months.  From these surveys, compute a measure of diffuse support from answers to forced choice questions, and compute measures of democracy values from free text answers to open-ended questions.  I will present preliminary results from this analysis and welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions for completing and polishing the paper.

Bio: Eric Plutzer is Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Penn State, where he also serves as Director of Polling for the McCourtney Institute for Democracy.  His research is broadly within the subfield of political behavior, including work on voter turnout, candidate choice, public opinion, and survey research methods.