The Relationship Between Political Participation and Life Satisfaction Depends on Preference for Non-Democratic Solutions

Research shows that life satisfaction is associated with political participation, although there are some inconsistencies in the literature. Drawing on a discrepancy perspective, the present study aims to investigate the moderating role of preference for non-democratic solutions. More specifically, the hypothesis states that the relationship between non-conflictual forms of political participation and life satisfaction would be weaker for high levels of preference for non-democratic regimes (high discrepancy) compared to low levels of preference for non-democratic regimes (low discrepancy). An ancillary analysis was also conducted to investigate the moderating role of preference for non-democratic solutions in the relationship between protest activities and life satisfaction. Analyses were conducted using data from the World Values Survey wave 7 involving 51 countries/territories for a total of 76,897 participants. The results revealed that the relationship between non-conflictual forms of political participation and life satisfaction was negative at high levels of preference for non-democratic regimes (high discrepancy) and positive at low levels of preference for non-democratic regimes (low discrepancy). In addition, the association between protest activities and life satisfaction was negative at medium to high levels of preference for non-democratic political systems, while at low levels of the moderator this association was positive. Results highlight the need to consider the discrepancy between preferences for non-democratic regimes and participation to fully characterize the relationship between life satisfaction and political participation.