Abstract: his paper investigates the relationship between income inequality and democratic satisfaction in 45 countries and its effect mechanisms, and finds that they are negatively correlated. Perception of income inequality is more effective in explaining individual support for democracy, while objective income inequality is more significantly correlated with democratic satisfaction at the national level. Perception of income inequality affects democratic satisfaction by weakening peoples political participation. Both subjective and objective income inequality will undermine the democratic satisfaction in Western mature democracies, which provides empirical support for the recent theory of “democratic deconsolidation”.

摘要： 对45个国家收入不平等与民主满意度的关系及其影响机制进行考察发现：二者存在显著的负相关，收入不平等感知在解释公民个体对民主的支持方面具有优势，客观收入不平等则在国家层面与民主满意度的相关性更高。收入不平等感知通过削弱民众的制度化政治参与，进而影响民主满意度。西方发达国家的民主满意度同样会受到收入不平等侵蚀，无论是主观收入不平等还是客观收入不平等。该发现为近年来兴起的“民主解固”论提供了经验支持。

关键词: 本文系2018年国家社会科学基金项目“习近平总书记网络空间治理思想及其实践路径研究”（项目号：18CKS050）的阶段性成果。