| Popis: |
Recent studies show that many voters are willing to support candidates who advocate illiberal procedures under certain conditions. According to these studies, many citizens trade off the protection of democratic norms in elections against partisan and policy interests. However, these studies do not take into account that people might support politicians who advocate illiberal practices out of conviction, nor how to mitigate these illiberal tendencies. To address this gap, we use a novel survey experiment that examines the relevance of (1) citizens’ populist and technocratic attitudes as well as conceptions of democracy in explaining support for politicians who advocate illiberal procedures, and (2) procedural justice in mitigating these illiberal tendencies. We argue that citizens’ support for politicians who seek to undermine democratic principles is motivated by a polity congruence between voters’ and politicians’ populist and technocratic beliefs as well as conceptions of democracy. In addition, we examine whether individuals’ experience with procedural justice affects the likelihood of supporting politicians who advocate illiberal procedures. In our experimental design, respondents are first exposed to an intervention with varying levels of procedural justice. Respondents are then presented with several vignettes of politicians using different democratic or illiberal procedures to implement their policy proposals in local politics. Our study thus contributes to a better understanding of people's motivations for supporting illiberal procedures and how these tendencies can be mitigated. |
