Winners, losers, and attitudes about government in contemporary democracies

The article compares the effect of political majority and minority status o n attitudes toward government in mature and newly established democracies. Specifically, it examines whether being in the majority translates into mor e positive attitudes toward government than being in the minority. Using su rveys conducted by the International Social Survey Project (ISSP) in 12 dem ocracies in 1996, it finds that being in the majority generally translates into more positive attitudes toward government. However, this effect is not of uniform magnitude across countries, nor does it affect all attitudes to ward government equally. Specifically, the data show that being in the poli tical majority or minority strongly affects attitudes toward the performanc e of the political system and the power of government, but does not affect people's levels of political efficacy in systematic ways.