Do citizens understand the right to protest as part of democracy?

This study investigates citizens’ support for the right to protest, an essential component of liberal democracy, amidst widespread threats to both the right to assembly and democracy at large across the globe. Existing research suggests that citizens’ support for democracy is fragmented and malleable, particularly regarding liberal rights. Still, citizens are often pointed to as potential safeguards of democracy, be it at the ballot box or in the streets. However, if we want to know when citizens will defend democracy and the right to protest, potentially by protesting themselves, we need to investigate their conceptions of and support for the specific democratic right of peaceful assembly. Through an experimental survey design fielded in Norway, a robust liberal democracy, this study explores how citizens evaluate the importance of protest rights to democracy and when they accept or reject restrictions on this right. The findings contribute to the broader literature on democratic backsliding and the growing body of research examining citizen attitudes to democracy.