Liberal Democratic Commitment: Why Citizens Tolerate Democratic Backsliding

The onset of democratic backsliding in erstwhile consolidated democratic regimes has taken observers by surprise. Why do citizens in advanced democracies tolerate democratic transgressions by elected leaders? Drawing on a forthcoming book with Oxford University Press, I claim that divergent understandings of democracy within the population are key to explaining enduring electoral support for elected leaders who engage in the dismantling of democratic checks and balances. This lack of attitudinal consolidation around liberal democratic norms leaves important parts of the electorate vulnerable to majoritarian or illiberal appeals by political elites. Updating the classical literature on political culture and its role for democratic stability, the analysis focuses on the crucial cases of Poland and Hungary to uncover the micro-foundations of the proposed relationship between mass attitudes towards democracy and political behaviour. The empirical approach leverages a mixed-methods design and draws on extensive material comprising focus groups, discourse data and original surveys including two conjoint experiments. Bringing new data and methods to the study of the linkages between political culture and political behaviour, the book demonstrates the crucial role citizens’ understandings of democracy play in enabling the deepening and entrenchment of democratic backsliding. Building on these insights, I will sketch future research avenues related to the stability and political consequences of democratic commitment in polarised times.