Concepts of democracy in democratic and nondemocratic countries
| Author | Anna Zagrebina |
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0192512118820716 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512118820716
International Political Science Review
2020, Vol. 41(2) 174 –191
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0192512118820716
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Concepts of democracy in
democratic and nondemocratic
countries
Anna Zagrebina
The Montreal Centre for International Studies (CÉRIUM), Canada
Abstract
Democratic experience constitutes an essential part of people’s world view and affects their understanding
of democracy. This statement is confirmed by evidence from the World Values Survey (WVS) showing that
the concept of democracy among citizens differs in democratic and nondemocratic societies. Democratic
citizens associate democracy principally with gender equality, while people in nondemocratic countries
associate it more strongly with a prospering economy and social control. People in democratic countries
are also less likely to associate democracy with army rule and the intervention of religious authorities in
political life than people in nondemocratic countries.
Keywords
Democratic experience, mass attitudes, gender equality, visible and invisible attributes of democracy,
democracy as habitat
Introduction
People across the world consider democratic political systems to be good and recognize the
importance of democracy, regardless of their own country’s political regime or political experi-
ence. The evidence from the World Values Survey (WVS) 2005–2014 shows that even in coun-
tries with no significant experience of a democratic political regime in a western sense, most of
the respondents consider democracy good and more than a third of them recognize the absolute
importance of democracy. Hence, it seems that democracy is becoming a desirable concept eve-
rywhere. This evidence raises a fundamental question: what do people in different countries mean
by democracy? In fact, in many cases, it is not clear to what extent the democracy for which there
is so much support in nondemocratic countries resembles democracy as it is known in western
countries. It is obvious that people in countries that have never experienced democracy in its
Corresponding author:
Anna Zagrebina, The Montreal Centre for International Studies (CÉRIUM), 3744 Jean Brillant Street, Montreal,
QC H3T 1P1, Canada.
Email: anna.zagrebina@gmail.com
820716IPS0010.1177/0192512118820716International Political Science ReviewZagrebina
research-article2019
Article
Zagrebina 175
western sense (i.e. free and equitable elections, accountability of political leaders, regular change
in who holds political power) could hardly possess the same ideas of democracy as the citizens of
advanced democratic societies. Some discrepancy between their ideas of democracy must exist,
which our further analysis proves.
Previous researchers have analysed citizens’ concepts of democracy in specific regions or coun-
tries (Baviskar and Malone, 2004; Canache, 2012; Dalton et al., 2007; de Regt, 2013; Ferrín and
Kriesi, 2016; Kornberg and Clarke, 1994; Mattes and Bratton, 2007; Miller et al., 1997). In this
article, we compare concepts of democracy found among citizens in democratic and nondemo-
cratic countries around the world. A similar comparison is undertaken by de Regt (2013). However,
her analysis includes only four Arab countries in which citizens’ concepts of democracy are com-
pared with those in western countries. Dalton and colleagues (2007) compare the meaning of
democracy in established democracies in eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Unlike
previous analysis, this research includes nondemocratic as well as democratic countries from dif-
ferent regions and focuses not on specific cultures or regions but on how democratic countries are
overall. Thus, it expands analysis of the linkage between political regime and concepts of democ-
racy among citizens.
The analysis of differences in perception of democracy in democratic and nondemocratic coun-
tries helps us to understand how the perception of democracy – that is, of desirable political regime
– is affected by people’s sociopolitical experience – that is, by their experience under democratic
governance or of living in an oppressive regime. This analysis also shows which key aspects of
modern democracy are underestimated by people who have never experienced a democratic regime
in their country or have not experienced a sufficiently long period of democracy. Such results indi-
cate the challenges of democratizing nondemocratic societies.
We use the WVS 2005 and 2010–2014 data to compare citizens’ concepts of democracy in
democratic and nondemocratic countries. We discover that in nondemocratic countries, more than
in democratic ones, people associate democracy with a prospering economy and social control,
while in democratic countries, more than in nondemocratic ones, people associate democracy with
the statement that women should have the same rights as men.
The remainder of the article is structured as follows. First, it discusses the importance of con-
cepts of democracy and the relationship between these concepts and sociopolitical regime. Next, it
describes the methodology, including hypotheses, data, research questions and methods. Then, the
key findings are presented. It concludes with some important suggestions about the influence of the
democratic experience on perceptions of democracy.
Concepts of democracy and sociopolitical regime
Democracy is considered to be a desirable sociopolitical regime and its importance is globally
accepted. Consequently, the concepts of democracy among citizens combine the most cherished
expectations about the ideal sociopolitical regime. These concepts show which development goals
and achievements citizens of a country consider a priority. The priorities of citizens for sociopoliti-
cal organization constitute a significant part of public opinion in a country. Thus, the comparative
analysis of concepts of democracy among citizens across countries contributes to the study of public
opinion and shows that significant differences exist in societies under different political regimes.
Democracy is so frequently encountered in mass media and scientific literature that one can
easily get the impression that people everywhere must understand it in very similar and definite
ways. Indeed, this would seem to be the case, since modern technology has given ready access to
sources of information about democracy, even to people living in nondemocratic countries. Access
to information differs for economic, political or other reasons. Norris and Inglehart (2009) show
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