Description: Understandings of Democracy examines why democracy is in trouble in today's world, even when most people profess to love democracy. Jie Lu and Yun-han Chu argue that people hold distinct understandings of democracy, and popular understandings of democracy have critically shaped how citizens respond to authoritarian or populist practices in contemporary politics. Using large-scale comparative surveys and survey experiments from seventy-two societies and a national survey in the United States, this book captures how people respond when presented with the tradeoffs between the intrinsic and instrumental values of democracy, as well as the attitudinal and behavioral implications of such responses.
Review Quotes: "How people understand and define democracy matters. Many scholars have used the fact that people have widely different understandings to cast doubt on the value of asking people survey questions about democracy, especially in the developing world. But Lu and Chu show how these diverse understandings arise, and, in turn, how they shape people's willingness to trade democracy for other desired goods. This has enormous consequences for understanding the current predicament of democracy across the globe." -- Robert Mattes, Professor of Politics, University of Strathclyde
"People around the world all say they love democracy, but Lu and Chu show that they have different ideas about what democracy means--and that the differences matter for regime support and political participation. Based on survey data from 72 societies, this rich, nuanced analysis sets a new standard for comparative studies of political culture and behavior." -- Andrew J. Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science, Columbia University"Crucially, the book shows how the relative distribution of these four groups differs throughout the world. This is important because benefit seekers those who choose outcomes over procedures may accept clearly undemocratic procedures, or even regimes, if they get their desired policy outcomes. The book also seeks to determine what contextual and demographic factors led to these varying understandings of democracy, and how individuals consequently vary in terms of democratic satisfaction and political participation. This comprehensive work provides thorough data and analysis." -- Choice"Lu and Chu's study is methodologically sound and at the cutting edge of advanced cross-national survey research...Logically structured, eloquently written, firmly embedded in empirical theory, and richly illustrated, this monograph provides meaningful and genuinely novel insights." -- Christian Welzel, Perspectives on Politics