Satisfied with democracy? An analysis of democratic support from the comparison of two methods of classifying citizens

There is an oft-heard democratic paradox: while people who do not live under democracy strive for it, where it exists democracy is under criticism. This does not mean that citizens in democratic systems want to get rid of it, but that their trust in the functioning of democracy is considerably eroded. This article analyses democratic support by questioning the way it is measured, based on a representative sample of the Walloon population in Belgium. To do so, it compares two methods for classifying citizens: The a priori method, usually used in the literature, and the inductive method, inspired from social psychology. Three profiles, whose contours partially differ between methods, emerge-non-democrats, satisfied democrats, and dissatisfied democrats-and are analysed in light of four theoretical approaches: resources, modernization, ideology and national identification. Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2017Â.