In recent years, an increasing number of scholars have made serious efforts to analyse how differently or similarly citizens of new and advanced democracies understand democracy. Unlike those research endeavours, this study attempts to evaluate how well or poorly global citizens are informed about democracy. Analysing the latest wave of the World Values Surveys, it demonstrates that the proportion of those well informed about democracy varies considerably across countries and within the population of each country. The well informed are most numerous among politically attentive citizens living especially in economically and democratically developed countries. This finding does not confirm the recently popular thesis of global democratisation that democratic political culture can emerge in any type of society within a relatively short period of time. Instead, it supports the long-standing Almond-Verba model of civic culture, which links cultural democratisation with socio-economic and political modernisation over an extended period of time.
AlmondG. and VerbaS. (1963) Civic Culture.Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
2.
BaviskarS. and MaloneM. F. (2004) ‘What Democracy Means to Citizens — and Why it Matters’, European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 76, 3–23.
3.
BrattonM. and MattesR. (2001) ‘Africans' Suprising Universalism’, Journal of Democracy, 12 (1), 107–21.
4.
BrattonM.MattesR. and Gyimah-BoadiE. (2005) Public Opinion, Democracy, and Market Reform in Africa.New York: Cambridge University Press.
5.
ChangY. and ChuY. (2007) ‘Traditionalism, Political Learning and Conceptions of Democracy in East Asia’, Asian Barometer Working Paper Series No. 39.
6.
CollierD. and LevitskyS. (1997) ‘Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research’, World Politics, 49 (3), 430–51.
7.
ConverseP. (1964) ‘The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics’, in ApterD. E. (ed.), Ideology and Discontent.New York: Free Press of Glencoe, pp. 206–61.
8.
CoppedgeM.AlvarezaA. and MaldonadoC. (2008) ‘Two Persistent Dimensions of Democracy: Contestation and Inclusiveness’, Journal of Politics, 70 (3), 632–47.
9.
CrowD. (2010) ‘The Party's Over: Citizen Conceptions of Democracy and Political Dissatisfaction in Mexico’, Comparative Politics, 43 (1), 41–61.
10.
DahlR. A. (1989) Democracy and Its Critics.New Haven CT: Yale University Press.
11.
DaltonR. (2000) ‘Citizen Attitudes and Political Behavior’, Comparative Political Studies, 33 (6–7), 912–40.
12.
DaltonR. and ShinD. (forthcoming) ‘Reassessing “The Civic Culture” Model’, in DaltonR. and WelzelC. (eds), The Civic Culture Transformed: From Allegiant to Assertive Citizens.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
13.
DaltonR.ShinD. and JouW. (2007) ‘Understanding Democracy: Data from Unlikely Places’, Journal of Democracy, 18 (4), 142–56.
14.
Delli CarpiniM. and KeeterS. (1996) What Americans Know about Politics and Why it Matters.New Haven CT: Yale University Press.
15.
DiamondL. (2008) The Spirit of Democracy.New York: Times Books.
16.
GeddesB. and ZallerJ. (1989) ‘Sources of Popular Support for Authoritarian Regimes’, American Journal of Political Science, 33 (2), 319–47.
17.
GibsonJ.DuchR. and TedinK. (1992) ‘Democratic Values and the Transformation of the Soviet Union’, Journal of Politics, 54 (2), 329–71.
18.
HuntingtonS. (1991) The Third Wave.Norman OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
19.
InglehartR. (1997) Modernization and Postmodernization.Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
20.
InglehartR. and WelzelC. (2005) Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy.New York: Cambridge University Press.
21.
JamalA. and NooruddinI. (2010) ‘The Democratic Utility of Trust: A Cross-National Analysis’, Journal of Politics, 72 (1), 45–59.
22.
LinzJ. and StepanS. (1996) Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation.Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
23.
LipsetS. (1960) Political Man.Garden City NY: Doubleday.
24.
McCloskyH. and BrillA. (1983) Dimensions of Tolerance.New York: Russell Sage.
25.
McCloskyH. and ZallerJ. (1984) The American Ethos.Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
26.
MattesR. (2007) ‘Public Opinion Research in Emerging Democracies’, in DonsbachW. and TraugottM. W. (eds), The Sage Handbook of Public Opinion Research.London: Sage, pp. 113–22.
27.
MattesR. and BrattonM. (2007) ‘Learning about Democracy in Africa: Awareness, Performance, and Experience’, American Journal of Political Science, 51 (1), 192–217.
28.
MillerA.HesliV. and ReisingerW. (1997) ‘Conceptions of Democracy among Mass and Elite in Post-Soviet Societies’, British Journal of Political Science, 27 (2), 157–90.
29.
MishlerW. and RoseR. (2005) ‘What are the Political Consequences of Trust?’, Comparative Political Studies, 38 (9), 1050–78.
30.
MondakJ. (1999) ‘Reconsidering the Measurement of Political Knowledge’, Political Analysis, 8 (1), 57–82.
31.
NorrisP. (2002) Democratic Phoenix.New York: Cambridge University Press.
32.
PadoverS. (1952) Jefferson: A Great American's Life and Ideas.New York: Signet.
33.
PutnamR. (1993) Making Democracy Work.Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
34.
RaudenbushS. and BrykA. (2002) Hierarchical Linear Models.London: Sage.
35.
RohrschneiderR. (1999) Learning Democracy: Democratic and Economic Values in Unified Germany.New York: Oxford University Press.
36.
ShinD. (2012) Confucianism and Democratization in East Asia.New York: Cambridge University Press.
37.
SimonJ. (1998) ‘Popular Conceptions of Democracy in Postcommunist Europe’, in BarnesS. H. and SimonJ. (eds), The Postcommunist Citizen.Budapest: Erasmus Foundation, pp. 70–116.
38.
VerbaS.SchlozmanK. and BradyH. (1995) Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics.Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
