Inequality and the eroding base of liberal democracy

Abstract

Previous studies broadly agree that economic inequality is negatively associated with popular support for democracy. This paper tackles this belief, testing it with more informative hypotheses. Capturing the insight from the theories of democratic attitudes and learning, this paper posits that increasing inequality would have differential effects on citizens’ normative support for democracy and their authoritarian inclination, and that those effects would also differ across the democratic regimes. Analyzing World Values Survey data covering 41 democracies over up to 25 years (1995–2020), this paper finds very little evidence for the association between inequality and normative support for democracy, whereas unearthing strong evidence for a varying effect of inequality on authoritarian inclination across the democratic regimes. It turns out where inequality is more severe, citizens in liberal democracies are more attracted to authoritarian leaders, whereas those in electoral democracies are less so. My findings refine the predominant thesis on the negative relationship between inequality and democratic support, detecting the complexities underlying it. My findings also shed new light on the theory of democratic learning and socialization by revealing the potential role of democratic regimes that remained unexplored in prior study. Lastly, this study provides a concrete explanation for how authoritarian leaders could win growing popular support in recent years where liberal democracy had most flourished.