Democracy, an empty signifier ? A qualitative reappraisal of citizens’ beliefs in democracy in western democracies

Recently, literature on democratic backsliding – state-led attacks on democratic institutions – in Western democracies came to the fore. Simultaneously, fewer citizens than ever engage with democratic politics and anti-system populists shake the foundations of many European democracies. Hence, our question: ‘are citizens satisfied with democracy?’ And, if not, ‘what accounts for dissatisfaction developing over time?’ Current research on citizens’ democratic (dis)satisfaction has little to offer beyond the dully-predictable finding that economic well-being and support for winning parties increase satisfaction with democracy. Indeed, ‘democracy’s backsliding’ is not borne out in survey data. The debates on the survey question on democratic satisfaction and the implications of aggregate variation across countries suggest existing research designs’ inadequacy. While great strides were made in measuring democracy across countries, less is known about temporal, social, and national variation in how citizens themselves define democracy. Given democracy’s multiple –sometimes incommensurable– possible meanings, what it means to citizens is subjective and context dependent. Hence, there is a gap in the literature concerning popular beliefs in democracy and their discursive embeddedness. We analyse democratic backsliding from citizens’ perspective by hypothesizing ‘democracy’ as an empty signifier. Implying that citizens’ definition of democracy determines their satisfaction with it. Empirically, this study re-analysed qualitative data (interviews and focus groups) from Belgium, France, and the UK over a period of 20-years – in a diachronic comparative perspective. By providing a detailed understanding of citizens’ beliefs in democracy and their evolution in qualitative terms, we seek methodological renewal for the study of citizens’ disengagement