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First published online May 17, 2011

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Citizen Satisfaction With Democracy and Parties’ Policy Offerings

Lawrence Ezrow [email protected] and Georgios XezonakisView all authors and affiliations

Volume 44, Issue 9

https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414011405461

Abstract
References

Abstract

The authors examine the relationship between the variation of policy choices on offer in a party system and citizen satisfaction. Cross-national analyses, based on 12 countries from 1976 to 2003, are presented that suggest that when party choices in a political system are more ideologically proximate to the mean voter position in left–right terms, overall citizen satisfaction increases. The central implication of this finding is that party positions matter for understanding within-country changes in satisfaction.

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