The value of liberal democracy
Recent studies suggest that citizens are unlikely to trade off free elections for other desirable outcomes, such as economic growth. However, while free elections are central to democracies, today democracy is not often undermined by abolishing elections. Our study shifts the focus to citizens'...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:311721 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/311721 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1111/1475-6765.70021 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Conjoint experiment Democracy Support Willingness to pay SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth |
| Sumario: | Recent studies suggest that citizens are unlikely to trade off free elections for other desirable outcomes, such as economic growth. However, while free elections are central to democracies, today democracy is not often undermined by abolishing elections. Our study shifts the focus to citizens' willingness to trade off the more granular democratic principles frequently eroded in backsliding processes - such as judicial independence, media freedom or horizontal accountability - for higher incomes. Through a seven-country conjoint experiment, we analyse how citizens prioritize among these principles and estimate their 'willingness to pay' - or the additional income needed to persuade citizens to give these principles up. We find that while citizens do not relinquish free elections easily, they are more open to forgo liberal principles undermined in backsliding processes, especially when these principles are eroded gradually, one at a time. These findings help explain why democratic backsliding may be often tolerated by citizens. |
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