Young People Punish Undemocratic Behaviour Less Than Older People

Bibliographic Data

ID6226969
AuthorsKristian Vrede Skaaning Frederiksen (0000-0003-1845-3297, Aarhus University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume54
Issue3
Pages1014-1022
Publication date2024-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1234 • E-ISSN: 1469-2112
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0007123423000649
OpenAlexW4389788500
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited26

Are young people less likely to punish undemocratic behaviour? I employ experimental data from five studies, ten countries, and seventeen unique country-year samples to reassess the proposition that young people are less committed to democracy than older people. The studies consist of four conjoint and one vignette experiments, which permit estimating an interaction between undemocratic candidate behaviour and respondent age on voting intentions. I find the interaction between undemocratic behaviour and age is negative – such that punishment of undemocratic behaviour increases with age – in all studies and almost all country samples. Moreover, the interaction is approximately linear and statistically significant in the pooled sample and most studies. Thus, young people are less likely to sanction undemocratic behaviour than older people. This letter contributes with the hitherto most comprehensive empirical contribution on age differences in commitment to democracy judging from punishment of undemocratic behaviour

Political science · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Psychology

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