2026 Theses Doctoral

Political Behavior in an Unrepresentative Democracy: From Institutional Failure to Popular Mobilization

Baltiansky, Dean A.

Large-scale social systems, such as the state and broader economic order, rely on the continued endorsement of the individuals they govern. When people come to believe that these systems no longer fulfill their intended purpose, their legitimacy begins to erode. In fact, large-scale social systems in liberal democracies are increasingly facing legitimacy crises, where individuals are perceiving government and national institutions as failing in their duties.

This dissertation examines the implications of such perceptions, tracing a pathway from institutional failure to popular mobilization. Adopting the perspective of individuals within large-scale social systems, I investigate how perceived breakdowns in the social contract, feeling left behind, and attributions about one’s position in the system shape political attitudes and behavior.

Across three chapters, I show that perceiving a broken social contract predicts political discontent, including anti-establishment sentiment, distrust in institutions, and support for radical change; that feeling left behind drives support for sweeping political change beyond left-right ideology, with its underlying factors playing a role in the type of change that is endorsed; and that when individuals attribute their disadvantage to a system in which a wealthy minority gains at their expense, they are more likely to express working-class solidarity and support for redistribution.

Together, these findings highlight the importance of understanding how individuals come to feel unrepresented within their social systems, and how these perceptions shape the transformation of large-scale political and economic institutions.