Ethnic antagonism erodes Republicans’ commitment to democracy

Larry M. Bartels

222 citations0/0 files storedProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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Electoral Systems and Political Participation Political Theory and Democracy Populism, Right-Wing Movements

Abstract

Most Republicans in a January 2020 survey agreed that "the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it." More than 40% agreed that "a time will come when patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands." (In both cases, most of the rest said they were unsure; only one in four or five disagreed.) I use 127 survey items to measure six potential bases of these and other antidemocratic sentiments: partisan affect, enthusiasm for President Trump, political cynicism, economic conservatism, cultural conservatism, and ethnic antagonism. The strongest predictor by far, for the Republican rank-and-file as a whole and for a variety of subgroups defined by education, locale, sex, and political attitudes, is ethnic antagonism-especially concerns about the political power and claims on government resources of immigrants, African-Americans, and Latinos. The corrosive impact of ethnic antagonism on Republicans' commitment to democracy underlines the significance of ethnic conflict in contemporary US politics.

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References

2016On Democratic Backsliding 1996Divided by color racial politics and democratic ideals 2019Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States 2016The Democratic Disconnect 1964Consensus and Ideology in American Politics 1960Fundamental Principles of Democracy: Bases of Agreement and Disagreement 2010Us against them: ethnocentric foundations of American opinion 1984Political Tolerance and American Democracy.

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