The hopeless forecast under the gloomy sky. "Crisis" of political legitimacy and role of future perspective in hard times

This study analyses the extent to which the recent economic crisis influences the political attitudes that are fundamental to legitimacy of a democratic system of government. The article focuses on two questions: how much does crisis exposure affect democratic legitimacy attitudes? And what is the role played by social mobility perspective on this effect? The findings, based on a sample of the Life in Transition Survey II, show that economic crisis exposure significantly affects political legitimacy attitudes. The results confirm that higher crisis exposure is asso-ciated with lower legitimacy. Additionally, the present research rules out the possibility that crisis expo-sure affects attitudes in a specific way, depending on the expected mobility valence. While replicating previous evidence supporting the negative democratic effect of adverse economic changes, the current research sheds light on the critical role that the future perspective plays in determining this effect.