Losing Hurts: Defeated Legislators and Satisfaction with Democracy in Latin America

Abstract

This article aims to analyze satisfaction with democracy among political representatives as key actors of democracy. We examine the impact of two possible sources of satisfaction—personal benefits and policy performance—using a database from the Latin American Legislative Elites Project with 1207 personal interviews to legislators from 17 countries. The results show that, in addition to the winner effect, personal benefits and policy performance are also significant factors explaining levels of satisfaction with democracy, but the impact is different for winners and losers. For winners, these aspects are irrelevant, and their levels of satisfaction remain high and stable, even under poor political performance. In contrast, losers have lower levels of satisfaction, but satisfaction with democracy increases with seniority, positive salary assessments, and perceptions of good political performance, suggesting that for defeated legislators, these factors help to heal their wounds.