It’s Not Just Trump

Americans of Both Parties Support Liberal Democratic Norm Violations More Under Their Own President

Bibliographic Data

ID6371981
AuthorsLevente Littvay (0000-0003-2022-6886, HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences Research Professor, , Budapest, ; and Senior Research Fellow, , Budapest), Jennifer L Mccoy (0000-0003-2217-4493, Department of Political Science, Georgia State University Regent’s Professor, , Atlanta, GA), Jennifer Mccoy (0000-0001-5844-2504), Gábor Simonovits (0000-0002-9263-745X, Department of Political Science, Central European University Associate Professor, , Vienna, ; and Senior Research Fellow, , Budapest)
Year2024
Volume88
Issue3
Pages1044-1058
Publication date2024-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePublic Opinion Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-362X • E-ISSN: 1537-5331
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/poq/nfae042
PMID39720165
OpenAlexW4403664084
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited32

There is a growing worry about the health of American democracy, and political scientists and pundits alike are looking for possible explanations. Surveys conducted during the Trump presidency showed considerable citizen support for liberal democratic norm erosions, especially among Republicans. However, recent experimental research also shows that voters of both parties are more tolerant of norm erosion committed by politicians of the party they prefer. In this note, we aim to reconcile these contradictory findings by analyzing surveys spanning from 2006 to 2021 on the public’s tolerance of executive concentration of power. We also collect original data under both the Trump and Biden administrations gauging support for a broad array of liberal democratic norm erosions. Support for such erosions, in fact, has been relatively similar across Democrats and Republicans once we account for the party of the president. Support for executive aggrandizement has been prevalent among supporters of the president’s party at least since the second term of the Bush administration. Increased checks and balances on the executive, through divided government, amplifies this effect further. Taken together, these findings suggest that universal support for the liberal democratic status quo has been weaker among those who support the president’s party, well before and since the Trump presidency

Democracy · Executive branch · Norm (philosophy · Political science · Politics · Presidency · Presidential system · Status quo · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Law · Public Administration