{"id":14139,"date":"2025-12-03T13:10:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T12:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/demokraziaren-babesa-altua-bada-ere-poztasuna-apalagoa-da-eta-desafekzioa-orokor-samarra\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T09:44:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T08:44:32","slug":"high-support-for-democracy-yet-lower-satisfaction-and-widespread-political-disengagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/high-support-for-democracy-yet-lower-satisfaction-and-widespread-political-disengagement\/","title":{"rendered":"High support for democracy, yet lower satisfaction and widespread political disengagement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A book promoted by Arantzazulab analyses social attitudes towards democracy in the Basque Country.<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Democracies face the urgent challenge of redefining their social contract, revitalising their institutions, and ensuring good governance. Another task is to rebuild ties with a citizenry showing strong disengagement from politics. This more subjective dimension \u2014 social attitudes towards democracy \u2014 has become an increasing concern. Yet citizens\u2019 opinions are rarely underpinned by data, and in their absence, confusion further distorts the social and political climate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collective book ‘Democracy and Political Culture: legitimacy, satisfaction and affective attachment in the Basque Autonomous Community’, (Editorial Catarata, 2025), coordinated by Andoni Eizagirre and Leyre Arrieta, and featuring contributions from researchers at Mondragon Unibertsitatea, the University of Deusto, and the University of the Basque Country, seeks to clarify the diversity of social perspectives on democracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book draws on a survey on democracy involving a sample of 2,173 people in Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Araba. A further 150 people participated in focus groups, and interviews were also conducted with experts and active politicians. The analysis of the results shows that fully understanding subjective orientations towards democracy requires distinguishing between aspects related to legitimacy, satisfaction, and affective attachment. The book confirms that these are three distinct attitudinal dimensions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Basque Country, support for democracy is very high. More than nine in ten people state a preference for democracy over other forms of government. This inclination is widespread, although there are differences across sociodemographic groups, with a small segment of young men expressing indifference. Similarly, this support is stable, and momentary events do not affect its legitimacy. However, levels of trust in democratic institutions are more uneven, and those identified as Basque institutions enjoy greater social acceptance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Satisfaction with the functioning and performance of democracy is quite another matter. In this case, the book finds that perceived institutional effectiveness is more influenced by economic cycles and political changes. Another revealing point is that attitudinal variables are more important than demographic variables. More specifically, identification with governing parties and a sense of belonging strongly shape the assessment of public policies. In that sense, discourses that polarise attitudes heighten the impact of partisanship on the social appraisal of policies. The book also shows that satisfaction with democracy registers somewhat lower levels than evaluations of the economic and political situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third and distinct attitudinal orientation concerns affective attachment to politics. The results indicate widespread disengagement, reflected in feelings of distance from politics, limited participation in public affairs, and a negative perception of politicians\u2019 willingness to respond to citizens\u2019 demands. In this case, the distribution is relatively similar across sociodemographic and political groups within Basque society. However, a considerable and growing proportion of the population declares an interest in politics and feels capable of understanding and interpreting political issues. These more positive attitudes are, nevertheless, concentrated mainly among those who identify as Basque and position themselves on the left. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book also examines the perspectives and assessments held by representatives of five Basque political parties \u2014 EAJ-PNV, EH Bildu, PSE-PSOE, PP\u2013Ciudadanos and Elkarrekin\u2013Podemos \u2014 regarding democracy. Interviewees define democracy as representation, election and mediation, and associate it with values such as freedom, equality, pluralism, respect and justice. Nonetheless, differences emerge, reflecting the ideological frameworks of each political culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenges and tensions facing democratic systems globally have their own manifestations in the Basque Autonomous Community, particularly with respect to legitimacy, satisfaction and affective attachment. However, the book emphasises that understanding these necessarily requires considering the tensions and fractures experienced by increasingly service-based, globalised and interconnected societies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the authors of the book in the photo<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The content of this book offers an opportunity to identify the strengths of Basque democracy and points to new avenues for further research. Indeed, one of the chapters reflects on how the work of Arantzazulab \u2014 a democracy innovation laboratory \u2014 can help improve affective attachment by putting into practice innovative approaches to governance and democracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early 2026, Arantzazulab will organise a series of conversations around the book, in collaboration with the three universities, with the aim of deepening engagement with its content and disseminating the research findings. The book is already available in bookshops and on the website<\/a> of Editorial Catarata.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A book promoted by Arantzazulab analyses social attitudes towards democracy in the Basque Country. Democracies face the urgent challenge of redefining their social contract, revitalising their institutions, and ensuring good governance. Another task is to rebuild ties with a citizenry showing strong disengagement from politics. This more subjective dimension \u2014 social attitudes towards democracy \u2014…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arantzazulab.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}