At a time of widespread disillusion, citizens keep telling us how “frustrated” they feel with their democracies. However, whilst scholars and commentators alike have heard that complain millions of times, we may not have taken it as seriously as we should. The author takes the concept of democratic frustration literally and puts it under an unprecedented analytical and empirical microscope. She applies insights from the psychology and political science literatures and uses a mixture of panel studies, surveys, interviews, and experiments to understand its sources, nature, dimensions, and consequences. The book sheds unprecedented light on pathologies of democratic frustration in the US, UK, Australia, and South Africa with a double focus on the general population, and on young people. Doing so, it reveals new thought-provoking insights on the true nature of contemporary democratic crises, and not least on how citizens’ actual desire for democracy uniquely shapes their dissatisfaction.
Table of Content
Chapter 1 Anatomy of democratic frustration.- Chapter 2 Democratic desire and delivery deficit: Operationalising democratic frustration.- Chapter 3 Narratives of democratic frustration.- Chapter 4 Causes of democratic frustration.- Chapter 5 Withdrawal, anger, and aggression: the behavioural consequences of democratic frustration.- Chapter 6 Democratic frustration amongst youth: the case of first time voters.- Chapter 7 An experiment on democratic frustration.- Chapter 8 Conclusions.
About the author
Sarah Harrison is Deputy Director of the Electoral Psychology Observatory and Assistant Professorial Research Fellow, Department of Government, LSE, UK.
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