Conference Agenda

For nearly two years, the COVID-19 pandemic presented a new challenge to democracy as governments around the world imposed harsh containment measures that affected nearly every aspect of economic, social, and political life. Round 10 of the ESS, which contained a special COVID-19 module (Hanson et al. 2021), and the CROss-National Online Survey (CRONOS) Panel offer a unique opportunity to reflect and reconsider the implications of the pandemic on democracy. The session welcomes papers that explore the pandemic’s implications on trust to political institutions, evaluations of democracy, and political participation, as well as papers that will look into the interplay among partisanship, socio-economic attitudes, social media use, conspiracy beliefs, and evaluation of government priorities and compliance with government policies during the pandemic. The session particularly encourages the use of the longitudinal and cross-national aspect of the ESS data, the use of multiples waves in the CRONOS Panel data, and papers that otherwise leverage the ESS data in field and survey experiments. Papers that use empirical findings to draw policy recommendations are also particularly welcome.

For nearly two years, the COVID-19 pandemic presented a new challenge to democracy as governments around the world imposed harsh containment measures that affected nearly every aspect of economic, social, and political life. Round 10 of the ESS, which contained a special COVID-19 module (Hanson et al. 2021), and the CROss-National Online Survey (CRONOS) Panel offer a unique opportunity to reflect and reconsider the implications of the pandemic on democracy. The session welcomes papers that explore the pandemic’s implications on trust to political institutions, evaluations of democracy, and political participation, as well as papers that will look into the interplay among partisanship, socio-economic attitudes, social media use, conspiracy beliefs, and evaluation of government priorities and compliance with government policies during the pandemic. The session particularly encourages the use of the longitudinal and cross-national aspect of the ESS data, the use of multiples waves in the CRONOS Panel data, and papers that otherwise leverage the ESS data in field and survey experiments. Papers that use empirical findings to draw policy recommendations are also particularly welcome.

For nearly two years, the COVID-19 pandemic presented a new challenge to democracy as governments around the world imposed harsh containment measures that affected nearly every aspect of economic, social, and political life. Round 10 of the ESS, which contained a special COVID-19 module (Hanson et al. 2021), and the CROss-National Online Survey (CRONOS) Panel offer a unique opportunity to reflect and reconsider the implications of the pandemic on democracy. The session welcomes papers that explore the pandemic’s implications on trust to political institutions, evaluations of democracy, and political participation, as well as papers that will look into the interplay among partisanship, socio-economic attitudes, social media use, conspiracy beliefs, and evaluation of government priorities and compliance with government policies during the pandemic. The session particularly encourages the use of the longitudinal and cross-national aspect of the ESS data, the use of multiples waves in the CRONOS Panel data, and papers that otherwise leverage the ESS data in field and survey experiments. Papers that use empirical findings to draw policy recommendations are also particularly welcome.

Round 10 of the European Social Survey (2021-2022) included a rotating module on European’s understandings and evaluations of democracy, largely replicating a previous module applied in Round 6 (2012- 2013). At the time, Europe was going through one of deepest economic and financial crises on record. However, the results and their analysis showed that, in spite of very large variations in how Europeans evaluated the performance of their democracies, the way they conceived “democracy” pointed to a widespread support for liberal and electoral institutions, even if complemented with equally important demands for economic equality and, to a lesser extent, for opportunities for a direct say in policymaking through referendums and initiatives. A lot has happened in the following decade, including a refugee crisis, referendums with unprecedented outcomes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine, accompanied by an underlying expansion of EU intervention in domestic politics. At the same time, radical right-wing parties have seen their electoral fortunes improve all over the continent, as the use of populist rhetoric deepened and increased. In countries such as Hungary and Poland, full fledged populist governance and a rule-of-law crisis has taken hold, with both domestic and Europe-wide consequences. How have these developments affected Europeans’ views and evaluations of democracy? This session welcomes paper submissions addressing how views and evaluations of democracy in Europe can be mapped today and how they - and their underlying sources - have changed in this last decade, resorting to the rich and high-quality data of ESS’s Round 6 and 10. For Round 10, the original module was adapted to allow the measurement of conceptions and evaluations not only along the liberal democratic, direct democratic, and social democratic dimensions, but also along the dimension of populist democracy, a view that stresses vertical over horizontal accountability and a unrestrained responsiveness to a sovereign “people”. How has this enriched our knowledge about how Europeans understand “democracy” and evaluate the performance of their regimes? We welcome papers both on the substantive topic - conceptions and evaluations of democracy in Europe, their causes and implications - and on the methodological challenges involved in assessing them.

Round 10 of the European Social Survey (2021-2022) included a rotating module on European’s understandings and evaluations of democracy, largely replicating a previous module applied in Round 6 (2012- 2013). At the time, Europe was going through one of deepest economic and financial crises on record. However, the results and their analysis showed that, in spite of very large variations in how Europeans evaluated the performance of their democracies, the way they conceived “democracy” pointed to a widespread support for liberal and electoral institutions, even if complemented with equally important demands for economic equality and, to a lesser extent, for opportunities for a direct say in policymaking through referendums and initiatives. A lot has happened in the following decade, including a refugee crisis, referendums with unprecedented outcomes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine, accompanied by an underlying expansion of EU intervention in domestic politics. At the same time, radical right-wing parties have seen their electoral fortunes improve all over the continent, as the use of populist rhetoric deepened and increased. In countries such as Hungary and Poland, full fledged populist governance and a rule-of-law crisis has taken hold, with both domestic and Europe-wide consequences. How have these developments affected Europeans’ views and evaluations of democracy? This session welcomes paper submissions addressing how views and evaluations of democracy in Europe can be mapped today and how they - and their underlying sources - have changed in this last decade, resorting to the rich and high-quality data of ESS’s Round 6 and 10. For Round 10, the original module was adapted to allow the measurement of conceptions and evaluations not only along the liberal democratic, direct democratic, and social democratic dimensions, but also along the dimension of populist democracy, a view that stresses vertical over horizontal accountability and a unrestrained responsiveness to a sovereign “people”. How has this enriched our knowledge about how Europeans understand “democracy” and evaluate the performance of their regimes? We welcome papers both on the substantive topic - conceptions and evaluations of democracy in Europe, their causes and implications - and on the methodological challenges involved in assessing them.

Round 10 of the European Social Survey (2021-2022) included a rotating module on European’s understandings and evaluations of democracy, largely replicating a previous module applied in Round 6 (2012- 2013). At the time, Europe was going through one of deepest economic and financial crises on record. However, the results and their analysis showed that, in spite of very large variations in how Europeans evaluated the performance of their democracies, the way they conceived “democracy” pointed to a widespread support for liberal and electoral institutions, even if complemented with equally important demands for economic equality and, to a lesser extent, for opportunities for a direct say in policymaking through referendums and initiatives. A lot has happened in the following decade, including a refugee crisis, referendums with unprecedented outcomes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine, accompanied by an underlying expansion of EU intervention in domestic politics. At the same time, radical right-wing parties have seen their electoral fortunes improve all over the continent, as the use of populist rhetoric deepened and increased. In countries such as Hungary and Poland, full fledged populist governance and a rule-of-law crisis has taken hold, with both domestic and Europe-wide consequences. How have these developments affected Europeans’ views and evaluations of democracy? This session welcomes paper submissions addressing how views and evaluations of democracy in Europe can be mapped today and how they - and their underlying sources - have changed in this last decade, resorting to the rich and high-quality data of ESS’s Round 6 and 10. For Round 10, the original module was adapted to allow the measurement of conceptions and evaluations not only along the liberal democratic, direct democratic, and social democratic dimensions, but also along the dimension of populist democracy, a view that stresses vertical over horizontal accountability and a unrestrained responsiveness to a sovereign “people”. How has this enriched our knowledge about how Europeans understand “democracy” and evaluate the performance of their regimes? We welcome papers both on the substantive topic - conceptions and evaluations of democracy in Europe, their causes and implications - and on the methodological challenges involved in assessing them.

This session will showcase research that analyses ESS data, exclusively or alongside other sources, to map societal change and stability. This session will focus on inter-generational relations, what drives volunteers, work and family life and modern cohabitation practices.