Anger and Weakening Commitment to Democratic Values in the United States

• In Event: Threats to Democracy and Democratic Norms

Abstract

Driven by the growth in negative partisanship and affective polarization, contemporary American politics is characterized by high levels of voter anger. At the same time, public opinion data suggests that Americans’ commitment to democratic values is at an all-time low. In this paper, I argue that these two phenomena are not simply correlated with each other but, instead, that anger causes citizens to express a a lower commitment to democracy and democratic norms. Utilizing an experimental design on a national sample of 3,500 Americans, I show that anger causes citizens to be more likely to believe that supporters of the opposing political party are a threat to the country’s well-being and that those who disagree with them politically are less intelligent than they are. The results have lasting, and potentially dramatic, implications for the health of American democracy and the citizenry’s commitment to democratic norms.

Author

• Steven Wayne Webster, Washington University in St. Louis