The Health of Democracies during the Pandemic: Results from a Randomized Survey Experiment

Concerns have been raised about the “demise of democracy,” possibly accelerated by pandemic-related restrictions. Using a survey experiment involving 8,206 respondents from 5 Western democracies, we find that subjects randomly exposed to information regarding civil liberties infringements undertaken...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AEA papers and proceedings 2023-05, Vol.113, p.572-576
Main Authors: Alsan, Marcella, Braghieri, Luca, Eichmeyer, Sarah, Kim, Minjeong Joyce, Stantcheva, Stefanie, Yang, David Y.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Concerns have been raised about the “demise of democracy,” possibly accelerated by pandemic-related restrictions. Using a survey experiment involving 8,206 respondents from 5 Western democracies, we find that subjects randomly exposed to information regarding civil liberties infringements undertaken by China and South Korea to contain COVID-19 became less willing to sacrifice rights and more worried about their long-term erosion. However, our treatment did not increase support for democratic procedures more generally despite our prior evidence that pandemic-related health risks diminished such support. These results suggest that the start of the COVID-19 crisis was a particularly vulnerable time for democracies.
ISSN:2574-0768
2574-0776
DOI:10.1257/pandp.20231093