When Push Comes to Shove: the Normalization of Political Violence

This article examines the underexplored impact of political violence on citizens’ acceptance of violence and their willingness to engage in politics. By focusing on citizens, it addresses a critical gap in research, which has largely emphasized how violence affects politicians rather than the public. While existing studies demonstrate that political violence influences politicians’ behavior and discourse, impacting representative elements of democracy, there is limited insight into how such incidents shape citizens’ engagement and views on the legitimacy of violence, potentially impacting deliberative and participative elements of democracy. Although citizens generally condemn violence against politicians in the abstract, it remains unclear whether acceptance varies based on the target of the incident. We theorize that acceptance of violence against political figures varies by (1) the attacked party – where political violence against co-partisan is seen as less acceptable than against out-partisans – and (2) the nature of the target – hypothesizing that political violence against party activists provoke stronger aversion than against elites. Additionally, we examine the potential mediating roles of fear and anger on political participation. Data will be collected in February through a factorial survey experiment in the Netherlands and Belgium. By exploring the reactions of citizens to political violence, this study extends existing literature by analyzing factors that mediate public acceptance and political engagement in an era of rising political aggression.