[Joint AxPo/CEE Seminar] The Crown as a Protector of Democracy? Constitutional Monarchs and Citizens’ Satisfaction with Democracy (Florence So, with Andrej Kokkonen)

Joint AxPo / CEE seminar

Sciences Po, 1 place Saint Thomas d'Aquin, 75007 Paris

In democratic parliamentary monarchies, the royal family is sometimes perceived as a relic of the past. What is a constitutional monarch good for? The literature on monarchy and regimes has yet to provide an answer. In this paper, we argue that these monarchs’ apolitical nature unifies their subjects and encourages cooperation, trust, and consensus among citizens and elites. As such, citizens of democratic parliamentary monarchies are on average more satisfied with democracy than those of republics. To test our argument, we (Florence So and Andrej Kokkonen) utilize the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) Surveys and the European Social Surveys (ESS) to measure citizens’ political attitudes and opinions on democracy. We also conduct a survey experiment to test our theory’s causal mechanism. The results from the observational studies support our hypotheses: democratic parliamentary monarchs reduce citizens’ perceived ideological distances with parties; this, in turn, raises citizens’ satisfaction with democracy. Our survey experiment results support our causal mechanism that it is the monarch’s apolitical nature that enhances citizens’ satisfaction with democracy. These results suggest that constitutional monarchies can reduce mass polarization and safeguard countries against the deterioration of democratic pluralism.

Speaker 

Florence So, Lund University

Discussant

Kevin (Vin) Arceneaux, Sciences Po, CEVIPOF

Chair

Olivier Godechot, Sciences Po, AxPo