Wie demokratiefreundlich sind die Europäerlnnen? (Süd-)ost: und Westeuropa im Vergleich

This article assesses the relationship of individual attitudes towards democracy and contextual characteristics such as the current political regime, its history and levels of socio-economic development. For this purpose the individual evaluations of a democratic rule, experts rule, army rule, and a strong-leader rule are considered. In methodical terms, the database of the World Values Survey, for the years 1999 and 2000, was used. The analysis reveals a strong relationship between individual political attitudes and different contextual factors. In particular, it can be demonstrated that undemocratic or less democratic views are more common in less developed regions and countries. Democratic values, on the other hand, vary primarily between countries and not so much within countries - they are more dependent on the absence of an authoritarian regime in the recent past than on the level of socio-economic development of the country. However, a certain level of prosperity represents a necessary underpinning.