Rally around the Rule of Law?

• In Event: Backlash against Liberal Norms and Policies

Abstract

How does international organizations' enforcement of democracy and rule-of-law standards influence domestic responses to backsliding governments? On the one hand, international relations scholars have argued that international enforcement actions provide normative focal points for the mobilization of domestic compliance constituencies and bestow legitimacy on actors with international law on their side. On the other hand, both scholars and practitioners worry that international enforcement action may create ``rally-around-the-flag'' effects that inadvertently increase support for backsliding regimes. We conduct a survey experiment designed to assess the public-opinion effects of European Union (EU) action in response to rule-of-law backsliding in Poland -- the largest of the EU member states experiencing a serious decline in the rule of law. The vignette experiment allows us to assess how information about ongoing EU enforcement actions and counter-narratives championed by the incumbent government influence citizen responses to reforms undermining judicial independence including their willingness to punish the government electorally in the 2023 legislative elections in Poland.

Authors

• Øyvind Stiansen, University of Oslo

• Daniel Naurin, Oslo University

• Asimina Michailidou, University of Oslo