From problems to solutions? Perception of the main flaw in the political system and support for democratic reform

Does the perception of the main flaw in the current system influence the democratic reforms supported by citizens? To address this question, the article relies on a survey module developed inductively after 45 in-depth interviews in France, inspired by the “problem-based approach”. We analyse how the main problem identified by citizens relates to six reforms: recall, paying elected representatives with the average national salary, citizen initiatives, the replacement of elected representatives by citizens selected by lot, quotas to improve descriptive representation, and term limits. Using descriptive statistics and ordered logit models, we show that the perception of the main flaw in the institutional system has an impact on the solutions favoured by citizens to fix it, but that this varies across problems. Some perceived deficiencies are linked to support for various democratic reforms, some to specific reforms only, and some are unrelated to reform preferences. In particular, diagnoses about the deficiencies of the political class and the lack of power sharing are associated with higher support for a wide range of democratic reforms, linked to the oversight of politicians (recall, average salary) and to the reinforcement of citizen participation and influence (citizen initiatives, sortition).