Collaborative Research: The Effects of Terrorist Threats on Democratic Support in Liberal and Illiberal Democracies

国际恐怖主义的威胁是当代一个突出和日益严重的问题。因此，公民越来越多地在恐怖主义威胁的幽灵下作出政治评价和决定。该项目研究了恐怖主义威胁影响对民主的支持的程度，以及这些影响在民主类型（自由与不自由）和信息环境（有或没有民主价值观的提醒）之间的差异。不自由民主是指那些正式的民主程序运作，但公民自由和其他民主规定没有得到广泛保护的民主国家。很少有研究专门研究一般的威胁背景，大多数没有专门考虑恐怖主义威胁，也没有研究不同类型的民主和信息环境的影响。调查人员预计，在缺乏民主价值观的背景提醒的情况下，在存在恐怖威胁的情况下，对民主的支持会减少。然而，这些转变预计将在不自由的环境中更加全面。当民主价值观被提醒时，自由社会中的人预计将保持对民主的相对较高的支持，无论是在抽象上（即，对言论自由的支持）和关于具体情况（即，支持反恐战争中的抗议活动）。在不自由的社会中，对民主价值观的广泛支持并不根深蒂固，也不会引起共鸣，这样的提醒不会产生任何效果。为了评估这些期望，研究人员在代表自由民主国家的八个国家（美国，英国，法国和西班牙）和狭隘的国家（阿尔巴尼亚、土耳其、玻利维亚和厄瓜多尔）。实验设计通过让参与者阅读随机分配的报纸文章来改变恐怖主义威胁的显着性，这些文章要么调用或降低恐怖主义威胁级别。同样不同的是，这篇文章是否伴随着民主价值观的提醒。然后，调查对象被问及他们对民主价值观、程序和制度的支持程度。这类实验是对因果关系最清晰的检验。一些调查是通过互联网进行的，另一些是在实验室的电脑上进行的;这些并行方法的使用通过利用不同的主题库来提高调查结果的可靠性。鉴于国际恐怖主义阴谋和袭击在数量、规模和地理范围上都有所增加，了解恐怖主义威胁的阴影如何影响世界各地公民理解和参与政治的方式至关重要。就自由民主国家而言，有证据表明，提醒人们注意核心民主价值观，可以减少恐怖主义威胁对支持民主的负面影响，这就意味着，在面临真实的威胁时，提醒人们注意核心民主价值观，可以提供重要的平衡，有助于防止公民对民主做法失去信心。关于不自由的民主国家，恐怖主义威胁对支持民主产生无条件负面影响的证据同时也警告说，公民可能会撤回对民主的支持，这可能导致政治不稳定。然而，如果民主价值观的提醒即使在不自由的社会中也证明是有效的，这将是一个重要的教训。

The threat of international terrorism is a salient and growing fixture of modern times. As a result, citizens are increasingly making political evaluations and decisions under the specter of terrorist threat. This project examines the extent to which terrorist threats affect support for democracy and how these effects vary across type of democracy (liberal versus illiberal) and information environment (with or without reminders of democratic values). Illiberal democracies are those in which formal democratic procedures operate, but in which civil liberties and other democratic provisions are not extensively protected. Few studies have looked specifically at general threat contexts, most have not considered terrorist threats specifically, and none explore effects across different types of democratic and information environments. The investigators expect support for democracy to decrease in illiberal and liberal democracies in the presence of a terror threat absent contextual reminders of democratic values. However, these shifts are expected to be more comprehensive in illiberal settings. When reminders of democratic values are presented, those in liberal societies are expected to maintain relatively high support for democracy both in the abstract (i.e., support for free speech) and with respect to specific situations (i.e., support for protests in the war on terror). In illiberal societies, in which diffuse support for democratic values is not well-engrained and does not resonate, such reminders will have no effect.To assess these expectations, the investigators perform a series of ten survey experiments in eight countries representing both liberal democracies (the U.S., the U.K., France, and Spain) and illiberal ones (Albania, Turkey, Bolivia, and Ecuador). The experimental design varies the salience of the terrorist threat brought to mind by having participants read a randomly assigned newspaper article that either invokes or decreases the terrorist threat level. Also varied is whether or not the article is accompanied by a reminder of democratic values. The survey respondents are then queried about their level of support for democratic values, procedures, and institutions. This type of experiment provides the cleanest test of a cause-effect relationship. Some surveys are taken over the internet, others are taken on a computer in a lab; the use of these parallel approaches improves the reliability of findings by drawing on different subject pools.The project has several broader impacts. Given that international terrorist plots and attacks have grown in number, size, and geographic scope, it is critical to understand how the shadow of a terrorist threat affects the ways that citizens around the world understand and engage in politics. With respect to liberal democracies, evidence that reminders of core democratic values reduce the otherwise negative effects of terrorist threat on support for democracy carries the public policy implication that such reminders in the face of a real threat may provide important balance, helping to keep citizens from losing confidence in democratic practices. With respect to illiberal democracies, evidence for an unconditional negative effect of terrorist threat on support for democracy carries with it the warning that citizens may withdraw their support for democracy, which may lead to political instability. However, if reminders of democratic values do prove effective even in illiberal societies, this would be an important lesson.