Economic Downturns, Blame Attribution, and Issue Salience: Evidence from Turkey

• In Event: The Economy Under Autocracy: New Research Directions

Abstract

Rulers in competitive authoritarian regimes typically present themselves as competent managers of the economy, given its importance for their legitimacy. How do they cope with the negative repercussions of economic downturns in terms of public support, and how do voters in such contexts respond to different strategies of incumbents? Are voters more affected by incumbent’s blame-shifting to other actors for bad economic outcomes, or perhaps they respond more to efforts to shift the political agenda away from the economy. I address these questions in the context of Turkey with an original, population-based survey experiment. Results suggest rulers of competitive authoritarian regimes have considerable leeway in shaping public opinion.

Author

• S. Erdem Aytaç, Koç University