Determinants of Democratic Frustration: Socio-Demographic, Psychological, Behavioural, and Electoral Psychology Factors

Abstract

In this chapter, I model democratic frustration (and its individual components) as a dependent variable based both on social and demographic characteristics, psychological determinants such as personality and moral hierarchisation, key political predictors such as ideology and interest in politics, and finally several electoral psychology variables, such as electoral identity, societal projection, empathic displacement, and projected efficacy. Using these models, we can understand with some accuracy, which citizens are most likely to feel democratically frustrated, and to highlight some key differences with those most likely to be apathetic or simply dissatisfied.