While most voters claim to support democratic norms, they still vote for parties and politicians violating these norms. Previous work has argued that this is the result of partisans selectively tolerating violations. We argue that voters are often not familiar with key democratic norms, and therefore unable to accurately identify norm violations. In absence of this knowlege, they rely on partisan cues.
We run a survey experiment using a two-wave panel survey in Germany to put this theory to the test. In the first wave, we inform voters about democratic norms and backsliding using a video and a quiz. In the second wave, we assess their sensitivity to democratic norm violations using a conjoint experiment, two real-world examples, and a hypothetical scenario. Our results reveal whether making citizens aware of key democratic norms and their potential violation enables them to accurately recognize violations, assign blame, and adjust their voting intentions to defend democracies. These findings can inform future education campaigns about democratic norms to prevent support for illiberal actors even in the face of substantial partisan polarization.
