Varieties of anti-democratic orientations

Abstract

Both in political science and the public, it is commonly understood that liberal democracies are under threat worldwide. While the support for democracy as the ideal political system has been in decline for several years and underpins populist parties’ electoral success (Foa & Mounk 2017), the normative orientations that nourish support for populist parties are less clear. On the one hand, research points at the significance of populist attitudes (e.g., van Hauwaert & van Kessel 2018) as a major explanatory factor for electoral behavior. On the other hand, studies argue that authoritarian beliefs contribute to a great extent to the support of right-wing populists (Donovan 2021). Yet empirical studies have pointed to the fact that populism and authoritarianism are indeed distinct orientations and not necessarily highly correlated at the individual level (e.g., Schäfer 2021). Other works have found that even voters without these attitudes are, under some conditions, likely to support illiberal candidates for election (Graham & Svolik 2020). Based on these disparate findings, the panel invites scholars to contribute to the following questions: First, what are the socio-demographic differences and commonalities of the support base(s) of illiberal parties? Second, is there such a thing as a common “anti-liberal sentiment” that unites populist, authoritarian and other beliefs contradicting liberal democracy and if so, what does it entail? Third, how do populist parties capitalize on these attitudes how can their democratic positions be categorized and measured beyond populism and authoritarianism? Theoretical, conceptional and empirical contributions, both qualitative and quantitative, are welcome.

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