Gender Gap in Support of Democratic Backsliding: Experimental Evidence in Turkey

• In Event: Democratic Stability and Backsliding

Abstract

Prior research suggests that men are more likely to vote for parties of the populist radical right (Betz, 1994; Manza & Brooks 1998; Inglehart & Norris, 2003; Whitaker, 2008; Giger, 2009; Mossuz-Lavau & Le Hay, 2010; Abendschön & Steinmetz, 2014) and to support policies advocating the use of violence than women (Wilcox, Hewitt & Allsop, 1996; Pratto, Stallworth & Sidanius, 1997). Surprisingly, little attention has been paid to whether such a gender gap also exists in support of political leaders undermining democratic norms and institutions. In this paper, we elaborate the argument suggested by the existing literature and examine whether men are more likely to tolerate undemocratic incumbents than women. To test our hypothesis, we conduct vignette and conjoint experiments on 2,000 respondents in Turkey, one of the most democratically backsliding countries in recent years. In this experiment, we estimate the likelihood that men and women respondents would vote for hypothetical candidates who engage in undemocratic actions in the next municipal election. In doing so, we experimentally investigate whether there is any causal relationship between gender and the recent phenomenon of democratic backsliding and explore other potential mechanisms that mediate this relationship. This paper makes significant contributions to the growing literature on the micro-level analysis of democratic backsliding by highlighting gender as one of the possible factors. (This research was made possible (in part) by a project granted by the NSF/American Political Science Association DDRIG. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors.)

Authors

• Yunus E Orhan, North Dakota State University

• Moohyung Cho, Ewha Woman's University