4 research outputs found
Role of Anxiety in Radicalizing Political Attitudes: Experimental Evidence from Slovakia
Proliferation of populist policies and strengthening of political populism in several liberal democracies has been accompanied by campaigns full of public anger, anxiety and fear. Our research contributes to understanding how negative emotions shape selected political attitudes. We designed an experiment with 72 participants randomly assigned to three groups. The aim was to impose anxiety by using a stimulus that is incidental, i.e. having unrelated content to the attitudes under study. In addition to self-reported emotional state measured by post-test survey, we also measured the heart rate activity. Regarding political attitudes, next to attitudes towards immigrants we measured attitudes towards marijuana decriminalization as well. Findings indicate that while imposed anxiety leads to more negative attitudes towards immigrants, there seems to be no such effect on attitudes towards marijuana. We explain the difference by presence/absence of the in-group/out-group division in the types of political attitudes under study
Deliberative Democracy in the EU. Countering Populism with Participation and Debate. CEPS Paperback
Elections are the preferred way to freely transfer power from one
term to the next and from one political party or coalition to another.
They are an essential element of democracy. But if the process of
power transfer is corrupted, democracy risks collapse. Reliance on
voters, civil society organisations and neutral observers to fully
exercise their freedoms as laid down in international human rights
conventions is an integral part of holding democratic elections.
Without free, fair and regular elections, liberal democracy is
inconceivable.
Elections are no guarantee that democracy will take root and
hold, however. If the history of political participation in Europe over
the past 800 years is anything to go by, successful attempts at gaining
voice have been patchy, while leaders’ attempts to silence these
voices and consolidate their own power have been almost constant
(Blockmans, 2020).
Recent developments in certain EU member states have again
shown us that democratically elected leaders will try and use
majoritarian rule to curb freedoms, overstep the constitutional limits
of their powers, protect the interests of their cronies and recycle
themselves through seemingly free and fair elections. In their recent
book How Democracies Die, two Harvard professors of politics write:
“Since the end of the Cold War, most democratic breakdowns have
been caused not by generals and soldiers but by elected governments
themselves” (Levitsky and Ziblatt, 2018)
This time it’s different? Effects of the Eurovision Debate on young citizens and its consequence for EU democracy:Evidence from a quasi-experiment in 24 countries
For the very first time in EU history, the 2014 EP elections provided citizens with the opportunity to influence the nomination of the Commission President by casting a vote for the main Europartiesâ âlead candidatesâ. By subjecting the position of the Commission President to an open political contest, many experts have formulated the expectation that heightened political competition would strengthen the weak electoral connection between EU citizens and EU legislators, which some consider a root cause for the EUâs lack of public support. In particular, this contest was on display in the so-called âEurovision Debateâ, a televised debate between the main contenders for the Commission President broadcasted live across Europe. Drawing on a quasi-experimental study conducted in 24 EU countries, we find that debate exposure led to increased cognitive and political involvement and EU support among young citizens. Unfortunately, the debate has only reached a very small audience