Democratic Support and Citizens’ Left-Right Self-Placement in Former Left- and Right-Authoritarian Countries

CO-AUTHOR without an ECPR account at the time of submission: Rachid Azrout // Who opposes democracy? It is commonly believed that rightist citizens are least supportive of democracy. Nevertheless, some evidence suggests that in former left-authoritarian countries support is lowest among leftist citizens. In spite of the growing concerns over the future of democracy, a systematic cross-national comparative comparison of democratic support among leftist and rightist citizens has thus far been lacking. For the purpose of this study, we draw on insights from the literature on authoritarian legacies, which argues that the past plays an active role in shaping the political and ideological structures we observe today. Building on this assertion, the purpose of the present study is to demonstrate that whether leftist or rightist citizens are less supportive of democracy depends on countries’ political history. We do so in three ways: by comparing the distribution of democratic support on the left-right dimension in function of (1) countries’ experiences with left- or right-authoritarianism, (2) citizens’ socialization under such a regime and (3) citizens’ evaluation of this regime. We use countries with a democratic legacy as a benchmark, studying 130,056 individuals in 40 European countries. These are respondents of the European and World Values Survey between 1994 and 2013. We demonstrate empirically three things. First, that democratic support is lowest among leftist citizens in former left-authoritarian countries and among rightist citizens in former right-authoritarian countries. Second, that this finding holds true for all generations, regardless of whether they grew up under authoritarian rule or thereafter. Third, that this association can be explained by positive evaluations of the previous regime. Together, these findings reveal an opportunity to package the demands of less democratic voters in former left-authoritarian countries and far-right parties in former right-authoritarian countries. In addition, it may also create an opportunity for parties of the opposite ideology to pursue antidemocratic politics under the guise of democratic improvement. Against this background, our study may constitute a theoretical and empirical foundation to understand why far-right parties such as the German National Democratic Party (NPD) and some Communist parties in Eastern Europe have a small but largely stable electoral basis, mostly consisting of less democratic citizens. While slightly more speculative, our findings may also help understand why far-right parties in former left-authoritarian countries such as Fidesz (Hungary) and the Law and Justice Party (Poland) are able to pursue antidemocratic politics with a relatively low risk of being associated with authoritarianism. As such, this study provides an important stepping stone for future studies aiming to understand the demand for radical parties from a comparative perspective.