The Partisan Dimension of Attitudinal Backsliding

• In Event: Extreme Parties and Positions

Abstract

Full title: The Partisan Dimension of Attitudinal Backsliding: Observational and Experimental Evidence in the Study of Democratic Deconsolidation

How willing are citizens in Western democracies to accept the erosion of democratic practices and principles? This paper probes this question by examining evidence in three studies across three countries. The first study uses novel survey measures to explore three dimensions of attitudes towards democratic backsliding in the US. While attitudinal backsliding is not a widespread phenomenon, our YouGov sample reveals that Republicans and particularly Trump supporters are significantly more likely to countenance backsliding than Democrats and Independents, especially with regard to executive aggrandizement and voting rights. The second study, based on the same conjoint experiment conducted in the US, UK and Canada with Dynata, enables us not only to test whether similar partisan effects hold cross-nationally, but also to explore potential reasons for this finding. We add the UK and Canadian cases to investigate whether the greater willingness of Republicans and Trump supporters to support democratic backsliding is unique, or whether it reflects a more general tendency for partisans to condone undemocratic practices when their party controls the executive. At the same time, the addition of the UK and Canadian cases allows us to understand whether any particular political ideology is more prone to democratic backsliding. For the third study, we like to understand whether and how attitudinal democratic backsliding can be mobilized. We develop randomized survey experiments using rhetorical mobilization of anti-democracy, strong leader and polarizing political arguments across three cases (Dynata).

Authors

• Dietlind Stolle, McGill

• Elisabeth L. Gidengil