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

Marcella Alsan (), Luca Braghieri, Sarah Eichmeyer, Minjeong Joyce Kim, Stefanie Stantcheva and David Yang

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2023, vol. 113, 572-76

Abstract: 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.

JEL-codes: D72 H52 I12 I18 K38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20231093

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