ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the impact of both citizen-government ideological proximity, and the past history of winning or losing, on a commonly used indicator of political support, namely satisfaction with democracy (SWM). The chapter goes beyond the simple dichotomous classification of winners and losers to consider the policy distance between individual voters and their government, and shows that ideological proximity exerts a significant impact on satisfaction with democracy. It uses satisfaction with democracy as an indicator at the regime performance level of political support. To examine this causal linkage in more detail, the chapter focuses on two different aspects that have been largely overlooked in the literature, including citizen-government ideological proximity. It examines the impact of voter-government ideological proximity and electoral winner/loser status on satisfaction with democracy, and demonstrates that the relationship between winner/loser status and satisfaction with democracy involves both absolute and marginal dynamics, as well as policy content.
