Municipal Governance and Democratic Perceptions: The Role of Party Competition and Municipal Governance on Evaluations of Democracy

This paper seeks to explore the role of municipal political experiences in shaping perceptions of national level democracy. I argue that the variation in citizens' perceptions of quality of democracy can be explained using municipal-level democratic cues. In addition to evaluating democracy based on national level elections, institutions, and trends, citizens are likely to determine the level on democracy based on immediate, observable democracy at the level of government closest to themselves. I use a multilevel model in order to evaluate how the structure of municipal electoral competition and government investment patterns affect individual perceptions of democracy.Master of Art