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

Marcella Alsan (marcella_alsan@hks.harvard.edu), Luca Braghieri, Sarah Eichmeyer, Minjeong Joyce Kim, Stefanie Stantcheva and David Yang

No 30846, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

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 five 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: I1 P0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna and nep-exp
Note: EH POL
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Published as Marcella Alsan & Luca Braghieri & Sarah Eichmeyer & Minjeong Joyce Kim & Stefanie Stantcheva & David Y. Yang, 2023. "The Health of Democracies during the Pandemic: Results from a Randomized Survey Experiment," AEA Papers and Proceedings, vol 113, pages 572-576.

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