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Winners’ Restraint or Affective Majoritarianism? Elections, Polarization and Political Support

Damjan Tomic et al.

Comparative Political Studies2026https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140251414013article
ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

Research on the impact of elections on attitudes toward democracy has focused primarily on satisfaction with democracy. Building on this, we analyze how winning and losing elections, along with affective polarization, shapes citizens’ support for norms of democratic restraint and consent. We propose that partisan animus weakens the “reservoir of goodwill” that helps citizens accept democratic norms that may go against their self interest. Using a comparative study of 35 elections and two quasi-experimental case studies, we find that while differences between winners and losers in their support for norms of restraint and consent can be statistically significant, they are substantively small compared to several benchmarks, even in highly polarized contexts. Thus, while satisfaction with democracy is notably shaped by winner-loser dynamics, especially when polarization is high, the impact of those dynamics on support for core democratic principles is limited. These findings improve our understanding of the role of citizens in democratic processes.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140251414013

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@article{damjan2026,
  title        = {{Winners’ Restraint or Affective Majoritarianism? Elections, Polarization and Political Support}},
  author       = {Damjan Tomic et al.},
  journal      = {Comparative Political Studies},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140251414013},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.