Table Of ContentPALGRAVE STUDIES IN POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Pathologies of
Democratic Frustration
Voters and Elections Between
Desire and Dissatisfaction
Sarah Harrison
Palgrave Studies in Political Psychology
Series Editors
Paul Nesbitt-Larking, Huron College, University of Western Ontario,
London, Canada
Catarina Kinnvall, Department of Political Science, Lund University,
Lund, Sweden
Tereza Capelos, Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security,
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
Henk Dekker, Leiden University, Professor Emeritus of Political Science,
Leiden, The Netherlands
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Sarah Harrison
Pathologies
of Democratic
Frustration
Voters and Elections Between Desire and
Dissatisfaction
Sarah Harrison
Department of Government
London School of Economics
and Political Science
London, UK
Palgrave Studies in Political Psychology
ISBN 978-3-031-24234-2 ISBN 978-3-031-24235-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24235-9
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Acknowledgments
This book asks some fundamental questions about the relationship citi-
zens have with the democracies. Time and time again when speaking to
people in the research we conducted as part of the Electoral Psychology
Observatory (EPO) research programme, I found that citizens would
spontaneously refer to their sense of frustration with their system, with
the processes, the politicians and their parties, and the general state of
democratic affairs in their country.
This book is based on research that was partly supported by several
grants, including First and Foremost (Economic and Social Research
Council Standard Grant: ES/S000100/1), the Age of Hostility (Euro-
pean Research Council Advanced grant: 788304, PI Michael Bruter), and
an LSE Department of Government seed research grant.
I would like to thank my colleagues who assisted me in conducting
the fieldwork, in particular Sandra Obradovic for the qualitative work and
Adam Ozer for the experiment. Within the case studies, focus groups were
supported by a wonderful team of research assistants, including Ginny
Moruzzi, Luke Mansillo, Courtney Leung, and Rania Putri.
The surveys were expertly conducted by Opinium, with particular
thanks to long-term colleagues James Endersby, James Crouch, and Adam
Drummond who have continued to encourage the research we conduct
at the Electoral Psychology Observatory. It was a pleasure to work on
improving my initial ideas with Ambra Finotello, executive editor of poli-
tics at Springer who has accompanied the project from the start. I am also
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful recommendations
that strengthened the manuscript and the copyeditors for their assistance
with the final edits. Moreover, any academic is indebted to the whole
network of colleagues who help make our work better and more enjoy-
able every day, including my academic and professional colleagues from
the Department of Government at the LSE, and the School’s excellent
Research and Innovation division for all of its support over the years. I am
also thankful to James Robins, who captured the image featured on the
front cover during one of our EPO visual experiments. In my case, I am
also grateful for the enthusiastic support I have received from practitioner
colleagues from our partner Electoral Commissions with whom discus-
sions on institutional responses and potential resolution to Democratic
Frustration have been invaluable.
I would also like to thank my wonderful family for their unwavering
belief in me and my crazy ways (ice swimming included!). I could not
have done this without your patient support, your infectious laughter,
and enormous hugs.
Finally, I am immensely indebted to my wonderful colleague Michael
Bruter, who has been a continuous source of inspiration and support,
reassurance, and more importantly, a great friend.
Contents
1 Anatomy of Democratic Frustration 1
What Is Pathologies of Democratic Frustration About? 1
Paradoxes of Democratic Crises 4
The Psychological Concept of Frustration 6
Mapping Democratic Frustration vis-à-vis Other Models
of Democratic Crises 8
Dimensions of Democratic Frustration 12
Modelling Democratic Frustration at the Individual Level:
Socio-Demographic, Psychological, Political, and Electoral
Psychology Determinants 15
Modelling Systemic Level Determinants of Democratic
Frustration 21
Withdrawal, Anger, and Aggression—A Model
of the Behavioural Consequences of Democratic Frustration 22
From Hopelessness to Hostility: Mapping the Potential
Attitudinal Consequences of Democratic Frustration 24
Psychological Models of the Evolution of Frustration 26
Diagnosing Frustration 27
Frustration and the First Vote 28
Democratic Frustration, Guilt, and Self-Blame 29
Cycles of Frustration and of Democratic Frustration 31
Therapeutics of Frustration 32
vii
viii CONTENTS
How Can We Explain the Determinants, Dynamics,
and Consequences of Democratic Frustration? 33
References 35
2 Models and Operationalisation of Democratic
Frustration 41
Democratic Frustration and Other Standards-Delivery Gap
Combinations 41
The Challenge of Operationalising Democratic Frustration
and Measuring Its Components and Dimensions 43
Overall Research Design Architecture 45
The Narrative Nature of Democratic Frustration: Two Sets
of Qualitative Measures 47
Spontaneous Open-Ended Evocations of Frustration
from Large Representative Samples of Citizens 48
Exploring the Discourse of Democratic Frustration: In-depth
Interviews 49
Quantitative Approaches 51
A Comparable Index of Democratic Frustration: Survey
Measures 52
Additional Survey Components 54
Unravelling the Cycle of Frustration—An Experiment 54
Additional Panel Study Survey 60
Case Selection 62
Risks and Advantages of Pilot Research Measurement 64
References 67
3 Nature of Democratic Frustration: Democratic Desire,
Standards, and Perceived Delivery in Action 69
Approaching the Nature of Frustration 69
Dimensions of Democratic Frustration: An Empirical
Analysis 71
Mapping Democratic Desire 73
Mapping the Democratic Delivery Gap 74
Mapping Democratic Frustration as an Interactive Object 77
Analytical Categories 78
Spontaneous Narratives of Dimensions of Frustration 79
The Nature of Democratic Frustration—How Is It
Experienced? 83
Democratic Frustration and Emotions 84
CONTENTS ix
Perceptions of Democratic Frustration in Self and Others 86
Democratic Frustration in Intimate Circles—Discussing
and Cultivating Frustration with Family and Friends 87
Managing Frustration—Expectations and Resolution 88
Democratic Frustration: Complex, Emotional,
and Disruptive Nature of Widely Acknowledged Phenomenon 90
References 91
4 Dynamics of Democratic Frustration: An Asymmetric
Bottomless Well 93
Dynamics of Democratic Frustration 93
An Experiment on the Nature of Democratic Frustration 94
Experimental Results 96
The Test of Time–How Stable Is Democratic Frustration? 100
Using Panel Data to Unravel the Dynamics of the Relationship
Between Frustration Components 106
Are Frustration Tunnels Lightless? 112
Breaking the Vicious Circle: Principles and Options 114
Addressing the Displacement-Frustration-Pathologies
Triangle? 115
References 117
5 Determinants of Democratic Frustration:
Socio-Demographic, Psychological, Behavioural,
and Electoral Psychology Factors 119
Dissecting Determinants of Democratic
Frustration—Individual and Combined Components
and Types of Predictors 119
Determinants of Democratic Desire 120
Determinants of the Democratic Delivery Gap 126
The Desire-Delivery Gap Interaction: Capturing the Causes
of Democratic Frustration 134
Qualitative Illustrations 144
Democratic Frustration—Unique Determinants
for a Unique Logic 146
Reference 147
