Radical and Low-Quality Opposition: The Challenges of Political Selection for Opposition Parties in Democratic Backsliding

• In Event: Voting for Populists and Autocrats: Understanding Support for Populist and Authoritarian Candidates

Brief Overview

I use data on candidate backgrounds and surveys with party elites, voters in Hungary to show that democratic backsliding reduces payoffs and raises economic, reputational costs of opposition candidacy, leading to a lower-quality, radical opposition.

Author

• Hanna Folsz, Stanford University