Satisfaction with democracy in Europe: assessing the role of public support measures and institutional trust

This article analyses the role played by the perceived public support measures introduced during Covid-19 and institutional trust in the mechanism linking the impact of economic hardship suffered by European citizens and their satisfaction with democracy. To this aim, we use the European Living, Working and Covid-19 survey conducted by Eurofound (Eurofound 2020). Firstly, Ancova tests over different waves are conducted to delve into the citizens' perceptions of proximity to institutions from the beginning of spring 2020 to the spring of 2021. Secondly, we estimate a mediation model on the wave that has registered the lowest rate of democracy satisfaction and public trust. The results show that, since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been an overall detachment of citizens from institutions, resulting from an overall decline in institutional trust and democracy satisfaction over time. They also suggest that European citizens' financial and economic difficulties affect their satisfaction with democracy in heterogeneous ways, depending on the degree to which they perceive the quality of public support and the level of trust in institutions: a deterioration in the levels of trust in institutions and in the evaluation of the public support, lead to a stronger negative effect of economic-distress on the citizens’ satisfaction with democracy. This study contributes to advancing our understanding of what contributes to citizens' trust and satisfaction with democracy. It suggests that the deterioration of satisfaction with democracy and trust in institutions may limit the citizens’ propensity to cooperate with public authorities and, as consequence, the ability of governments to deal effectively with health and socio-economic crises.