New publication of Zsófia Papp, "The Indirect Effect of Electoral Rules on Citizens' Satisfaction with Democracy: A Comparative Study" was published in the Swiss Political Science Review.

The aim of this study is to understand how electoral rules affect citizens’ satisfaction with democracy. The focus is on the extent to which this effect is mediated by the constituency orientation of legislators and the proportionality of election results. The analysis combines data from the European Social Survey and the Comparative Candidates Survey and covers 24 elections from 14 European countries. The multilevel SEM suggests two results. On the one hand, what majority and some mixed-member electoral systems gain through increasing constituency orientation, they lose to disproportional election results. On the other hand, open and flexible lists perform better in increasing satisfaction than closed ballots. Importantly, the analysis reveals a winner-loser gap in how constituency representation and proportionality affect democratic satisfaction. Both are more important for the losers of the elections when they evaluate democratic performance.

The full article is available at the following link:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/spsr.1249