Analysis of democratic legitimacy has generally focused on two different perspectives. Minimalist definitions of democracy focus on procedures, liberties and rights, whereas substantive definitions focus on how such a regime improves citizens’ general welfare. Democracies have enjoyed decades of prosperity. Hence, the impact of a lack of economic wellbeing has been difficult to analyse and, consequently, the weight of substantive issues in democratic legitimacy remains unexplored. However, the impact of the recent financial crisis allows us to measure how elites and citizenry of seven countries on four different continents evaluated the importance of political versus economic issues for the level of democracy in their countries. The analysis is based on public and political elite surveys conducted in 2006 and in 2013.

民主合法性的分析通常集中在两种不同的观点。民主的最低限度定义集中于程序，自由和权利，而实质性定义则集中于这种制度如何改善公民的总体福利。民主国家享有数十年的繁荣。因此，难以分析缺乏经济福祉的影响，因此，仍未探讨实质性问题在民主合法性中的重要性。但是，最近的金融危机的影响使我们能够衡量四个不同大陆上的七个国家的精英和公民如何评估政治和经济问题对本国民主水平的重要性。该分析基于2006年和2013年进行的公共和政治精英调查。