Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DEMOTRADEOFF (Reconciling Citizens with the Tradeoffs of Democracy: Attitudes Toward Democracy Under Rising Politicization)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-10-01 do 2025-03-31
While democracies are not inherently flawed, it is not possible to maximize all of their desirable qualities simultaneously. Fundamental democratic principles-such as popular sovereignty, minority rights, freedom, and equality-often conflict with one another, making it impossible to maximize all of these values simultaneously. For example, majority rule may conflict with the protection of minorities, or individual freedoms may compete with the need for political equality. Thus, in a democracy, trade-offs are inevitable.
These trade-offs would not be problematic as long as citizens and political leaders are open to compromise and accept that, because democracy requires a balancing of virtues, one cannot "have it all. Although empirical evidence is limited, existing public opinion data suggest that this may not be the case, as citizens are very demanding about what they expect from democracy. This is likely to lead to frustration and disenchantment with democracy among citizens. These challenges are compounded by the increasing politicization of these trade-offs, particularly by populist movements, which can polarize citizens and undermine trust in democratic systems. Recent events such as Brexit, judicial reforms in Poland and Israel, and the U.S. Capitol riot demonstrate how these democratic trade-offs can provoke political discontent and instability.
The DEMOTRADEOFF project addresses these challenges by examining how citizens and political parties perceive and navigate these democratic trade-offs. The project aims to understand the root causes of democratic dissatisfaction and develop strategies to foster greater acceptance of the necessary compromises inherent in democracy. By analyzing the preferences of citizens and political actors in 15 European countries, the project offers a comprehensive map of democratic trade-offs, their politicization, and their impact on democratic support.
Expected outcomes include innovative tools for measuring citizens' attitudes toward these trade-offs, insights into how partisan rhetoric influences these attitudes, and practical recommendations for civic education campaigns. These campaigns aim to inform citizens about the intrinsic nature of democratic trade-offs. By bridging political science, sociology, and psychology, the project aims to address one of the most pressing issues of our time: reconciling citizens with the complexities of democracy and safeguarding this political system.
These trade-offs would not be problematic as long as citizens and political leaders are open to compromise and accept that, because democracy requires a balancing of virtues, one cannot "have it all. Although empirical evidence is limited, existing public opinion data suggest that this may not be the case, as citizens are very demanding about what they expect from democracy. This is likely to lead to frustration and disenchantment with democracy among citizens. These challenges are compounded by the increasing politicization of these trade-offs, particularly by populist movements, which can polarize citizens and undermine trust in democratic systems. Recent events such as Brexit, judicial reforms in Poland and Israel, and the U.S. Capitol riot demonstrate how these democratic trade-offs can provoke political discontent and instability.
The DEMOTRADEOFF project addresses these challenges by examining how citizens and political parties perceive and navigate these democratic trade-offs. The project aims to understand the root causes of democratic dissatisfaction and develop strategies to foster greater acceptance of the necessary compromises inherent in democracy. By analyzing the preferences of citizens and political actors in 15 European countries, the project offers a comprehensive map of democratic trade-offs, their politicization, and their impact on democratic support.
Expected outcomes include innovative tools for measuring citizens' attitudes toward these trade-offs, insights into how partisan rhetoric influences these attitudes, and practical recommendations for civic education campaigns. These campaigns aim to inform citizens about the intrinsic nature of democratic trade-offs. By bridging political science, sociology, and psychology, the project aims to address one of the most pressing issues of our time: reconciling citizens with the complexities of democracy and safeguarding this political system.
The DEMOTRADEOFF project has advanced significantly in understanding how democratic trade-offs influence citizens’ attitudes toward democracy and their broader political implications. Below is an overview of the activities and achievements organized by the project’s objectives:
1. Elaborating a Conceptual Map of Democratic Trade-offs
The project developed a detailed conceptual framework categorizing 12 distinct democratic tradeoffs. This foundation informed a pilot survey and the subsequent design of a comprehensive 15-country survey, encompassing 55 original questions aimed at measuring public opinion preferences about democratic trade-offs and 13 innovative experiments. The survey captured citizens’ attitudes, preferences, and revealed behaviors toward democratic trade-offs. Key insights include:
- Citizens widely perceive trade-offs between democratic principles, with significant variation across countries and demographic groups.
- Self-interest and political biases often lead citizens to prioritize certain democratic principles over others.
- Methodological innovations, including point-allocation tasks and interactive survey designs, provided robust tools to measure tradeoff preferences.
2. Analyzing Determinants and Impact of Trade-off Preferences
The project explored how individual and contextual factors shape democratic trade-off preferences. Results revealed:
- Self-interest, political identity, and in-group biases strongly influence citizens’ willingness to compromise democratic principles.
- Changes in political contexts and policies affect preferences in a “thermostatic” manner.
- Preliminary findings from the 15-country dataset are deepening understanding of these dynamics, contributing to ongoing research, such as analyses of minority rights and freedom of expression trade-offs.
1. Elaborating a Conceptual Map of Democratic Trade-offs
The project developed a detailed conceptual framework categorizing 12 distinct democratic tradeoffs. This foundation informed a pilot survey and the subsequent design of a comprehensive 15-country survey, encompassing 55 original questions aimed at measuring public opinion preferences about democratic trade-offs and 13 innovative experiments. The survey captured citizens’ attitudes, preferences, and revealed behaviors toward democratic trade-offs. Key insights include:
- Citizens widely perceive trade-offs between democratic principles, with significant variation across countries and demographic groups.
- Self-interest and political biases often lead citizens to prioritize certain democratic principles over others.
- Methodological innovations, including point-allocation tasks and interactive survey designs, provided robust tools to measure tradeoff preferences.
2. Analyzing Determinants and Impact of Trade-off Preferences
The project explored how individual and contextual factors shape democratic trade-off preferences. Results revealed:
- Self-interest, political identity, and in-group biases strongly influence citizens’ willingness to compromise democratic principles.
- Changes in political contexts and policies affect preferences in a “thermostatic” manner.
- Preliminary findings from the 15-country dataset are deepening understanding of these dynamics, contributing to ongoing research, such as analyses of minority rights and freedom of expression trade-offs.
Several achievements from this project represent significant advances beyond the current state-of-the-art in the study of attitudes towards democracy and political support.
1. Comprehensive measurement of democratic trade-offs. By mapping 12 distinct democratic trade-offs and designing tools to measure multiple dimensions of citizens’ attitudes, the project provides the most exhaustive empirical framework to date for analyzing democratic tensions. The combination of open- and close-ended questions offers a holistic approach that extends the boundaries of current methodologies in studies of attitudes towards democracy.
2. Development and refinement of state-of-the-art survey methodologies. The development of our 15-country survey, and the accompanying pilot survey, introduced innovative techniques for assessing attitudes towards trade-offs. The use and combination of of point-allocation tasks, interactive sliders and conjoint experiments with innovative measurement of outcomes is a methodological leap, enabling a more nuanced understanding of how citizens navigate tensions between competing interests. These techniques may have an impact beyond the study of democratic trade-offs.
3. The role of self-interest and in-group biases. While not unexpected, the finding that self-interest and in-group biases affects citizens' willingness to trade off democratic principles are of high relevance for our current understanding of processes of democratic backsliding. These insights open new avenues for research on the conditional nature of democratic support
1. Comprehensive measurement of democratic trade-offs. By mapping 12 distinct democratic trade-offs and designing tools to measure multiple dimensions of citizens’ attitudes, the project provides the most exhaustive empirical framework to date for analyzing democratic tensions. The combination of open- and close-ended questions offers a holistic approach that extends the boundaries of current methodologies in studies of attitudes towards democracy.
2. Development and refinement of state-of-the-art survey methodologies. The development of our 15-country survey, and the accompanying pilot survey, introduced innovative techniques for assessing attitudes towards trade-offs. The use and combination of of point-allocation tasks, interactive sliders and conjoint experiments with innovative measurement of outcomes is a methodological leap, enabling a more nuanced understanding of how citizens navigate tensions between competing interests. These techniques may have an impact beyond the study of democratic trade-offs.
3. The role of self-interest and in-group biases. While not unexpected, the finding that self-interest and in-group biases affects citizens' willingness to trade off democratic principles are of high relevance for our current understanding of processes of democratic backsliding. These insights open new avenues for research on the conditional nature of democratic support