The Economic Performance of Governments

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Abstract
A major conclusion of this book is that there are few consistent trends in popular support for the political community but there is high and perhaps even growing support for democratic values and declining support for regime institutions and political leaders. Earlier chapters have traced these patterns with respect to democracy worldwide, and, in particular, regions of the world. This one focuses specifically on the role of public policy in shaping popular support for democratic institutions among OECD countries. The data are aggregate indicators across twenty‐four of the twenty‐nine member countries of the OECD in 1997, as well as individual‐level data from the same twenty‐four countries based on the 1990–1 World Values Survey. The different sections of the chapter are: Explaining Institutional Confidence; Evidence for Trends in Institutional Confidence; The Role of Democratic Experience; Policy Outputs and Confidence: A Macro Analysis; Policy Outputs and Confidence: A Micro Analysis; and Discussion and Conclusions.