Winners' restraint or affective majoritarianism? : elections, polarization and political support
Tomic, Damjan (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Ferrer Juan, Sergio (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Prada Gonzalez, Enrique (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Hernández, Enrique (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Date:	2026
Description:	35 pàg.
Abstract:	Research on the impact of elections on attitudes toward democracy has focused primarily on satisfaction with democracy. Building on this, we analyze how winning and losing elections, along with affective polarization, shapes citizens' support for norms of democratic restraint and consent. We propose that partisan animus weakens the "reservoir of goodwill" that helps citizens accept democratic norms that may go against their self interest. Using a comparative study of 35 elections and two quasi-experimental case studies, we find that while differences between winners and losers in their support for norms of restraint and consent can be statistically significant, they are substantively small compared to several benchmarks, even in highly polarized contexts. Thus, while satisfaction with democracy is notably shaped by winner-loser dynamics, especially when polarization is high, the impact of those dynamics on support for core democratic principles is limited. These findings improve our understanding of the role of citizens in democratic processes.
Grants:	European Commission 101042292 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PID2022-137516NA-I00
Note:	Altres ajuts: ICREA
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Elections ; Public opinion ; Quality of democracy ; Voting behavior
Published in:	Comparative political studies, 2026, p. 1-35, ISSN 0010-4140

DOI: 10.1177/00104140251414013

35 p, 1.1 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles