Affective Polarization and Support for Militant Democracy: the Role of Democracy Conceptions

Recent experiences in countries like the United States, Poland, or Hungary demonstrate that executive capture is a growing threat to democratic institutions. This has reignited debates over militant democracy, i.e., preventive measures to keep undemocratic actors out of power. While existing research examines the design and effectiveness of measures such as proscription, employment bans, and media deplatforming, we know less about citizens’ support for such measures. As efforts to safeguard democracy require public support to be legitimate and effective, this is a dangerous omission. We argue that support for militant democracy is primarily shaped by affective dislike and citizens’ conceptions of democracy, with militant democratic understandings amplifying the effect of partisan dislike, and majoritarian understandings reducing support for militant democracy. We support this claim with data from the Berlin Polarization Monitor, a high-frequency panel survey, with over 4,000 respondents per wave, that was first fielded during the German federal election in 2025. We employ logistic regression models with region fixed effects and clustered standard errors to assess variation in support across multiple militant democracy measures. Our findings build on research on affective polarization and democratic backsliding and have important implications for debates on how to protect liberal democracy from illiberal challengers.