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Communication dans un congrès Année : 2023

Can Winners be Sore Losers?

Résumé

Political mistrust in France and Europe, has long been regarded as a symptom of democratic crisis (Bedock 2017; Mounk 2018), characterized by the growing polarization between those who are satisfied with the current political system and those who are jaded by democracy . The well documented mechanism of sore losers (inter. al. Blais & al. has been used to help explain the rise in political polarization following electing periods (Anderson & al. 2005), emphasizing how supporters of losing candidates declare greater disappointment after the elections However, after the 2022 French presidential election, we detect in our quantitative survey a trend of winners acting like sore losers . Rather than a sign of a worsening democratic crisis, we argue that this paradoxical situation sheds light on the growing dissatisfaction and the disappointment in democracy and in doing so reveals a different phenomenon: the enhancement and the sophistication of citizens’ democratic demands. Using a mixed methods approach, our communication aims to reverse the interpretation of political mistrust as proof of the decline in citizens’ democratic aspirations . Qualitative semi structured interviews were carried out with French citizens during the electoral campaign allowing us to document citizens’ wishes about complex forms of interactions with their elected representatives , which mix both proximity and authority (a "chameleon" verticality), as well as various articulations of democratic expectations instrumental, procedural, and symbolic We conclude that the only way to explain why supporters of the winning candidate may act like sore losers and declare lesser satisfaction in democracy after and despite their electoral victory is by understanding the variety of expectations among voters. The sociodemographic data analysis of the quantitative survey respondents and the qualitative pre electoral (and a few post electoral) interviews indicate that democratic disappointment following elections is not merely caused by results. Consequently, we call for a reconceptualisation of sore losers that considers a greater comprehension of citizens’ expectations and extends to certain winners.
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Dates et versions

halshs-04229762, version 1 (05-10-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : halshs-04229762 , version 1

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Florent Frasque, Stéphanie Abrial. Can Winners be Sore Losers?. (Mis)trust and democracy: political polarization in contemporary politics and society, TRUEDEM workshop - Metropolitan University Prague, Sep 2023, Prague (CZ), Czech Republic. ⟨halshs-04229762⟩
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Dernière date de mise à jour le 28/04/2024
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