INTERNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS The Voter’s Choosy Heart Beats Left of Centre Satisfaction with the Government and Attitudes of Social Democratic Voters in European Comparison, 2002–2008 BERNHARD WESSELS May 2012 „ „ How satisfied are social democratic voters with the performance of their govern­ments? Furthermore, do Social Democratic voters still differ at all from other voters with regard to their political objectives and orientations? These are the two overarch­ing questions considered in this contrast analysis, based on data from the European Social Survey. „ „ Comparing the voters of social democratic and conservative parties we find that social democratic voters»punish«»their« governments more severely with expres­sions of dissatisfaction if they are not satisfied with policy outcomes. Moreover, they »reward« their governments less with expressions of satisfaction. „ „ Regardless of a government’s performance the duration of a period of government is alone sufficient to bring about a slight fall in voter popularity and an increase in the number of those who abstain from voting. Interestingly, this erosion by»voter fatigue« is much more pronounced among social democratic voters and their gov­ernments than among conservatives. „ „ Social democratic and conservative voters differ clearly in terms of their political goals and orientations. Surprisingly, the biggest differences between social democratic and conservative voters concern»tolerance and integration«: in other words, attitudes about lifestyles, immigrants, migration and European integration and not traditional issues of the left like»social differentiation and inequality«.