Public Opinion and Foreign Intervention in Democracies and Autocracies

• In Event: Public Opinion and Foreign Policy

Abstract

The literature of public support for foreign intervention suggests that citizens in democratic states are less supportive of military intervention against democracies and countries violating human rights (Tomz and Weeks 2013). Whether the regime type of the conflict initiator/invader and its interplay with the target’s regime type affects the public’s willingness to support such a foreign intervention remains unclear. We argue that citizens in democracies are more likely to support defending and assisting a democratic state due to their similar and shared democratic values, and such support will be stronger if the perpetrator is an autocracy. However, if the perpetrator is a democracy, their support diminishes caused by cognitive discordance since they are not certain which democracy (invader or victim) they shall help. We fielded an online 2X2 survey experiment in the United States in December 2020, varying the invader’s and victim’s regime type along with 1392 valid subjects. The results from our experiment support the theoretical argument. This research contributes to the literature of public support for foreign intervention and sheds light on democratic peace theories.

Authors

• Yao-Yuan Yeh, University of St. Thomas

• Hsuan-Yu Lin, Harvard University

• Charles K.S. Wu, University of South Alabama