How Instrumentalism Undermines Democracy: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment

• In Event: Attitudes towards Populism, Democracy, and Autocracy

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that citizens in established democracies are willing to make trade-offs between valued political goals and democratic principles. Yet we know rather little about the particular types of policy issues that are more likely to make citizens prioritize them over democratic norms. These questions are particularly important in European multiparty systems that have experienced significant party system realignments in recent years. Drawing on the literature on democratic backsliding and issue dimensions in multiparty democracies we hypothesize that identity-related policy issues are more likely to generate trade-offs between issue congruence and democratic principles. Our theoretical expectations are tested with evidence from a pre-registered conjoint experiment embedded in a nationally representative survey (n=2406) conducted in Finland, an established multiparty democracy where identity-related issues have become increasingly politically salient. We find strong evidence that citizens are willing to make substantial trade-offs between their favored issue positions and democratic principles. However, contrary to our expectations, these effects are similar across all issue areas, and are not more pronounced over identity-related issues. Our results therefore do not support to the expectation that voters would be willing to overlook democratic principles only for particularly polarizing political issues. Instead, our results are in line with earlier literature that stresses instrumental benefit-seeking in political behavior.

Authors

• Inga A-L Saikkonen, Åbo Akademi University

• Henrik Christensen, Åbo Akademi University