Why do countries with more democracy want less of it?

ONE OF THE assumptions often made about democracies is that, like wine, they get more palatable with age. Citizens of democratic societies grow up learning about the benefits of political freedoms and civil liberties. As adults, they reap the rewards of representative government. The more time a country spends as a democracy, the argument goes, the more the public will support it.

But new research in the American Political Science Review suggests this presumption may be wrong. Using data on democratic quality as well as public opinion in 135 countries, Christopher Claassen of the University of Glasgow finds that after countries strengthen certain democratic institutions—in particular those intended to protect individual rights and check the power of executives—public support for democracy falls. Conversely, when democracy is weakened, support for it tends to increase. Mr Claassen measured levels of democracy using indices that tracked elements such as the cleanliness of elections, adult enfranchisement and the protection of individual and minority rights. He defined “democratic mood” as national-level support for democratic versus non-democratic regimes and used statistical models to adjust for differences in national surveys.