The Democracy Barometers (Part I): Learning to Support New Regimes in Europe

Issue Date July 2007
Volume 18
Issue 3
Page Numbers 111-125
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Using New Europe Barometer public opinion surveys from 13 postcommunist countries, this article shows that with the passage of time citizens in undemocratic as well as democratic regimes tend to accept their political system; however, they do so for different reasons. Democratic regimes can gain positive support from reform-minded democrats and those who reject undemocratic alternatives. By contrast, undemocratic regimes depend more on resigned acceptance from citizens who do not think there is any alternative, thus, for better or worse, making their new regime the only game in town.

About the Author

Richard Rose is director of the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and creator of the New Europe Barometer surveys of mass response to transformation in postcommunist countries. His latest book, coauthored with William Mishler and Neil Munro, is Russia Transformed: Developing Political Support for a New Regime (2006).

View all work by Richard Rose