Democracy Challenged: How Different Party Families Politicize Different Democratic Principles

The past years have seen increased attention concerning the potential erosion of liberal democracy. Within these accounts lies the idea that liberal democracy itself has become the object of political competition. In this paper, we ask how political parties politicize the principles of liberal democracy. We expect that challenger parties are most likely to question existing principles. The targets of their criticism, however, should vary according to their ideological origins. Conducting automated quantitative text analysis of Swiss, German, and Austrian party press releases between 2006 and 2018 using a multidimensional dictionary of liberal democracy, we confirm that left-libertarian and populist radical right parties are the main challengers of the democratic status quo. The foundation of criticism, however, differs fundamentally. While left-libertarians focus on democratic principles that strengthen individual autonomy in politics, populist radical right parties demand more forms of political participation and fewer constraints by liberal elements of democracy.