WORLD OPINION THE UNEVEN GROWTH OF DEMOCRATIC

The consolidation of a democracy requires ‘broad and deep legitimation, such that all significant political actors, at both the elite and mass levels, believe that the demo-cratic regime is the most right and appropriate for their society, better than any other realistic alternative they can imagine ’ (Diamond, 1999, p. 65). An assessment of the extent of normative commitment to democracy among the public at large can tell us much about how far the political system has really traveled toward democratic consol-idation (Chu, Diamond, & Shin, 2001). A robust popular base of legitimation entails both widespread and strongly felt attach-ment to a democratic regime and dwindling support for non-democratic alternatives. These two dimensions of popular commitment to democratic legitimacy are conceptually different and empirically distinguishable (Rose, Mishler, & Haerpfer, 1998; Shin & Wells, 2005). To this end, we seek to answer three empirical questions: To what exten