Deficit of Confidence within European Democracies

Recent empirical data attests that a massive majority of Europeans are deeply attached to democracy as the only acceptable political system. According to many surveys most European citizens do not conceive realistically an alternative system of government for their own country. Such a massive attachment is a new phenomenon in Europe — before the war the picture was very different. At the same time, a comparable wealth of data indicates that in most countries a large proportion of people are dissatisfied with the real functioning of the system, that they mistrust basic institutions and social organizations and that they have lost confidence in the confidence in the “political class”. Does this deficit of trust challenge the legitimacy of the current regime?