Comparative Politics

B02 - Institutions, Voting Behavior, and Democratic Satisfaction

Date: Jun 3 | Time: 10:15am to 11:45am | Location:

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Marc Hooghe (KU Leuven)

Gendered Perspective at Polls: A Case Study of Voting Behavior in Pakistan: Muhammad Sajid (University of the Punjab,Lahore-Pakistan), Javeria Naeem (Government associate college Ghakhar Mandi Gujranwala, Punjab, Pakistan)
Abstract: This paper delves into the details of the voting behavior of male and female voters in the country. It employs three electoral models widely used in comparative politics to analyze voting preferences. Sociological, Psychological, and Rational Choice models have been used to determine the most dominating determinants of election decisions of the voters in Pakistan. Furthermore, the study separately analyzes the ballot choice of male and female behavior, which is a novel area of electoral studies in Pakistan. Combining questionnaire survey techniques and qualitative reasoning backed by existing literature have been used in this study. The study sample is the male and female voters, picked by random sampling to avoid bias. The research paper determines how peer group, party affiliation, and economic interests play different roles in male and female polling attitudes. By employing statistical tools of variance and ANOVA for the data, the results show that the rational choice model is the most dominant factor among the electorates. Furthermore, the paper reveals different levels of impact of each model on male and female voters.

Causes and effects of democratic dissatisfaction in Lebanon and Morocco: Engi Abou-El-Kheir (University of Ottawa)
Abstract: While there is extensive research on democratic dissatisfaction and satisfaction with democracy within Western populations, there is little research going past the simple evaluation of the proportion of citizens’ satisfaction with democracy in Middle East and North Africa (MENA)/Arab countries. In academic research, there is usually a stronger focus on questioning whether these countries are democracies, the structure of the democracies themselves, and the authoritarian leaders, rather than citizens’ opinions on their democracies and systems of governance. As fledgling or hybrid democracies, in a region where democracy has struggled to take hold, going further and understanding the specific factors that cause MENA region citizens to be more or less satisfied with their democratic systems is important. Lebanon and Morocco are the case studies for this, as two of the most democratized states in the region. This study considers the central factors influencing satisfaction with democracy in Western literature, the structures, institutions, and civil opinion in the democracies of Lebanon and Morocco. Based on the Comparative Conspiracy Research Survey (CCRS) dataset, I carry out quantitative analysis and regression, analyzing what variables (including trust in institutions and populism) impact Moroccan and Lebanese citizens’ satisfaction with democracy and how these compare to Western indicators. These quantitative results will provide further, unique nuance to more normative literature on citizens’ satisfaction with democracy in the MENA region.