Among the macroeconomic factors that may be of importance, the amount of wealth produced by the society could influenceinstitutionalconfidence,withgreaterwealthgeneratingreducedconfidencesupportsincegovernmentswill be unable to satisfy the rising expectations that emerge. Unemployment and inflation have both been identified as factors in weakening support for incumbent governments (Monroe 1984). We might expect, then, that high levels of unemployment and inflation would undermine support for the democratic system as a whole. This link could come about directly, by eroding the spending power and savings of citizens, or indirectly, by presenting a visible measure of economic underperformance which could harm the system's credibility in the eyes of the electorate.59 Unfortunately, the strong relationship between GDP and inflation among our 24 OECD countries precludes us testing the inflation hypothesis, but we can test the impact of unemployment.60