Affective Polarization and Support for Undemocratic Behavior in Russia

• In Event: Depolarization Strategies

Abstract

Why do citizens continue to support badly performing regimes and leaders who cheat to win elections? We contribute to understanding how polarization shapes support for authoritarian regimes by drawing a distinction between polarization grounded in ideological differences versus polarization grounded in negative affect. We argue that affective polarization is more relevant than ideological polarization for understanding how voters process information about and, in turn, vote for regime candidates in autocracies, such as Russia. Using a two-wave panel survey of Russian voters and an embedded vignette experiment, we investigate whether affectively polarized regime supporters are (1) more likely to discount new information about negative performance by the regime and (2) less likely to punish regime candidates who cheat than are other supporters of the regime.

Authors

• Yunus E Orhan, North Dakota State University

• Bryn Rosenfeld, Cornell University

• Ora John Reuter, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee