Public support for domestic policies in times of backlash: Evidence from a survey experiment

A growing literature demonstrates how authoritarian leaders use or repurpose democratic institutions to enhance regime survival. Law, and especially international law, is one of such instruments: autocrats embed their policies in the language of the law to justify or legitimize domestic policies in various spheres. Yet, we know very little about the actual effect such framing has on public support of these policies, especially outside of liberal democracies. Building up on the theories of compliance, this study seeks to advance our understanding of the conditions under which the public approves or disapproves domestic policies by conducting a series of survey experiments in Poland, Turkey, and Russia. My main interest is in the effect of competing legal hierarchy (national vs. international) on public approval of domestic policies in non-democratic regimes. When a country violates international norms and/or places domestic law above international norms, which side would the public choose? To which extent does embedding a policy in international legal language influence public support (a) for these policies, and (b) domestic and international institutions involved in decision-making? I will focus on public support depending on case outcomes (whether respondents view them as favourable or not) or levels of authority involved in the decision-making (no judiciary, constitutional court, international court) across several vignettes (i.e. human rights, asylum, business law).