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Learning to Lose: Election Outcomes, Democratic Experience and Political Protest Potential

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  • ANDERSON, CHRISTOPHER J.
  • MENDES, SILVIA M.

Abstract

Do democratic elections and experience with democracy affect citizens' propensity to engage in political protest? If so, how? A model of protest potential based on the incentives election winners and losers face in new and established democratic systems is presented. Using surveys conducted by the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) in seventeen democracies around the globe, the effect on political protest potential of being in the political minority or majority after an election is compared. Being in the political minority heightens citizens' political protest potential. Moreover, the effect on protest potential of losing is significantly greater in new democracies compared with established ones. These findings provide systematic evidence that election outcomes should be considered important indicators of political protest potential, and they imply that this effect is particularly salient in countries whose democratic institutions are relatively new and potentially more unstable.

Suggested Citation

  • Anderson, Christopher J. & Mendes, Silvia M., 2006. "Learning to Lose: Election Outcomes, Democratic Experience and Political Protest Potential," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(1), pages 91-111, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:36:y:2006:i:01:p:91-111_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Neugart, Michael & Rode, Johannes, 2021. "Voting after a major flood: Is there a link between democratic experience and retrospective voting?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    2. Mayne, Quinton & Hakhverdian, Armen, 2016. "Ideological Congruence and Citizen Satisfaction: Evidence from 25 Advanced Democracies," Scholarly Articles 25302405, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    3. Ali Abdelzadeh, 2014. "The Impact of Political Conviction on the Relation Between Winning or Losing and Political Dissatisfaction," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(2), pages 21582440145, May.
    4. Woodley, Lucas & Greene, Joshua D., 2024. "Restoring Electoral Confidence: Different Cues for Strong and Weak Partisans," OSF Preprints yvaf5, Center for Open Science.
    5. Angeline G. A. Nariswari & Qimei Chen, 2016. "Siding with the underdog: is your customer voting effort a sweet deal for your competitors?," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 701-713, December.
    6. Cristina Gomez-Roman & Jose Manuel Sabucedo, 2016. "The Occupy and Indignados movement and the importance of political context: differences between occasionals and regulars in Spain and the UK," European Journal of Government and Economics, Europa Grande, vol. 5(1), pages 29-46, June.
    7. Borbáth, Endre & Gessler, Theresa, 2020. "Different worlds of contention? Protest in Northwestern, Southern and Eastern Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 59(4), pages 910-935.
    8. Carlos Alós-Ferrer & Johannes Buckenmaier, 2021. "Voting for compromises: alternative voting methods in polarized societies," ECON - Working Papers 394, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.

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