The Effects of Threat on Perceived Legitimacy of Democratic Procedures: A Laboratory Experiment

Current political debate is to a considerable extent fueled by the concerns about recent successes of populist political movements and their potential impact on the prospects of democracy. While some authors warn of a slow erosion of democratic norms and institutions (e.g., Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2017), others object that a popular support for democracy as a preferred system of government remains relatively high and stable in established democracies (van Ham & Thomassen, 2017). However, citizens’ high and stable support for democracy does not have to mean much because people can appraise democracy in different ways that are based on individual preferences but also situational influences. More specifically, the concept of democracy encompasses a variety of decision-making procedures (e.g., direct vote, decision of elected representatives, deliberation-based consensus) that put emphasis on different, often conflicting, principles (e.g., majority rule vs. minority rights). As suggested by previous studies, the preference for particular principles might be contingent on situational factors (Sullivan & Transue, 1999). In our paper, we ask whether the particular aspects of democratic decision-making produce different levels of legitimacy in different situations. We hypothesize that, in the context of threat, people perceive as more legitimate procedures that put emphasis on majority rule and disregard minority or opposition voices, while the tendency is opposite for situations involving no threat. Moreover, we propose a related hypothesis that the opportunity for citizens to have voice in the decision-making procedure, which is known from previous studies to be an important generator of legitimacy, loses its importance if contextual threats are present. The paper will present findings from a laboratory experiment testing our hypotheses (scheduled on May 2019). The experiment will involve 160 adult participants who will be presented with vignette descriptions of a political problem involving the whole society and a subsequent political decision taken to handle the problem. We will manipulate with the description of democratic procedures employed to reach the decision (how much minority opinions are considered and opportunities for citizens’ voice are provided) and with the induction of threat (both related and unrelated to the political issue in question). Perceived legitimacy of the procedure and outcome acceptance will be captured as dependent variables. We expect to illuminate, from the psychological perspective, the situational processes leading people to accept majority oriented and authoritarian political decisions. Implication for current populist tendencies in politics will be discussed.