Government alternation and satisfaction with democracy

Elections are a crucial way for voters to influence who governs them. Yet, there is a strong difference between systems with wholesale and partial alternation. In the former, citizens’ votes are crucial in determining who governs. In the latter, who governs is decided in an opaque process of government formation where election results are not decisive. This article argues that voters who experience wholesale government alternation will display greater satisfaction with democracy than voters who have experienced only partial alternation. Drawing on CSES data covering 32 countries and 140 elections over a quarter of a century, support is found for the importance of voters’ experience of government alternation for their satisfaction with democracy.