Support For Democratic Values Research Articles

Students’ attitudes towards fundamental democratic values: The construction of a measurement instrument

Schools carry the important task of fostering democratic values like equality and tolerance among students. This study examined to what extent a valid and reliable measurement instrument can be developed to gain insight into students’ attitudes towards democratic values and what can be concluded based on this measurement. We constructed the Fundamental Democratic Values Questionnaire (FDVQ) based on existing conceptualisations of democratic values. After that, we conducted two pilot studies ( N = 302 and N = 227) and a first measurement ( N = 3278) among Dutch students in grades 5 and 6 (approximately 10–12 years old), resulting in an impression of the usefulness of the instrument for empirical research and practical use by schools. The results support the FDVQ’s validity and reliability to measure students’ attitudes towards democratic values. Support for democratic values among students was generally high. These findings and the implications of the FDVQ are further discussed.

U.S. SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRATIC VALUES IN UKRAINE: THE INSTITUTIONAL DIMENSION

The purpose of this article is to analyze the role of U.S. governmental and non-governmental institutions in supporting democratic values in Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It examines how American assistance has contributed to preserving Ukraine’s democratic governance, sovereignty, and political freedoms during the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict (war). The article also provides an overview of key U.S. institutions and organizations that have actively supported Ukraine’s democratic aspirations through financial aid, technical assistance, and institutional reforms. The methodological basis of the study includes a thorough review of publications from the websites of relevant organizations and agencies, official reports and news for 2022–2024. The research also draws on analytical works from prominent U.S. think tanks, including the Brookings Institution and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, alongside data from surveys conducted by the National Democratic Institute and Razumkov Center. Comparative analysis and case studies are used to assess the feasibility of U.S. support in areas like anti-corruption initiatives, civil society development, and local governance reforms. The scientific novelty of the article lies in its holistic approach to understanding the diverse dimensions of U.S. support for democratic values in Ukraine. Unlike previous studies, which focus on specific aspects of U.S.–Ukraine cooperation, this research presents a comprehensive examination of how American institutions, including the U.S. Department of State, USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) etc. are making efforts to strengthen democracy in Ukraine during the war. The author concludes that U.S. assistance is important for Ukraine’s democratic foundations. However, it has not yet addressed such problems as the decline in Ukrainians’ trust in government institutions, which underscores the need for continued efforts to increase transparency, anti-corruption measures, and accountability to bring Ukraine closer to European standards in the long run.

Mısır’daki Temmuz 2013 askeri müdahalesine yönelik Amerikan söylemi ve AB politikasının bir analizi

The Arab Uprisings in the regional sense came to a halt with the July 2013 military intervention in Egypt. The military intervention constituted a challenge for the global actors in terms of the level of their commitment to the principles and norms such as democracy and human rights. This article analyzes the US discourse towards the military intervention in Egypt by using the method of discourse analysis. Discourse analysis focuses on the reflexive relationship between discourse and context. Thus, the chaotic Egyptian context offers a good test for the US foreign policy. Furthermore, the EU policy during the Arab Uprisings will be addressed as a point of comparison for the US due to its normative character. Despite the support for democratic values and norms at the discursive level, the US foreign policy prioritized the longstanding alliance with Egypt and the Egyptian military based on shared interests. Naming the military intervention as a “coup” would lead to both political and legal consequences like cutting off the aid to the Egyptian military. In addition to the longstanding alliance, the legal consequences of a coup, possible effects of the US position on the European and regional actors as well as the need for keeping its reputation as a reliable ally contributed to cautious discourse and interest-based policy of the US. The US call for returning to a democratic order meant the acceptance of the results of the military intervention in Egypt and the maintenance of the discourse of “democracy promotion”. On the other hand, the EU policies during the Arab Uprisings also reflected a gap between rhetoric and practice, and they ended in another missed opportunity for asserting its normative power. As a result, the military intervention in Egypt confirmed the primacy of interests rather than norms and principles for the Western actors.

Світ після COVID-19: демократія VS авторитаризм

Розглянуто проблему розвитку світового порядку, становлення політичного ладу суспільств після COVID-19. Доведено, що кризи в Європі ХХ ст. спричиняли появу як авторитарних, так і відновлення альтернативних демократичних режимів. Визначено, що COVID-19 може стати поворотним моментом епохи глобалізації, втрати довіри до демократії та зміцнення авторитаризму.

After the Storm: Racial Differences in Allegiance to America’s Democracy

Many observers of American politics despair over the possible consequences for the health of America’s democratic political culture of the 2020 presidential election, the January insurrection, and the Trump impeachment and acquittal. The specific fear is that popular support for American democratic institutions has been eroded and compromised. Based on a nationally representative survey with a large oversample of African Americans, I address the hypotheses that a) support for democratic institutions is not widespread, b) that significant inter-group differences in support exist, c) that awareness and assessment of these events are connected to democratic support, and d) that support for these institutions is grounded in more elemental and obdurate democratic values. After finding that African Americans extend significantly less support to America’s democratic institutions, I consider whether reverence for these institutions was undermined by the election and its aftermath. My findings cautiously suggest that the election/insurrection events may not have changed many American minds, Black or White; instead, it appears that those already low in support for democratic values were the ones most receptive to elite canards regarding the legitimacy of the election and its outcome. On all aspects of this analysis, I find strong inter-racial differences.

Who will defend democracy? Evaluating tradeoffs in candidate support among partisan donors and voters

ABSTRACT Scholars and pundits fear that the American public’s commitment to democracy is declining and that citizens are willing to embrace candidates who would trample democratic principles. We examine whether violations of those principles generate resistance from voters and/or top campaign donors and whether such resistance extends across partisan lines. In a conjoint survey experiment, we investigate how regular Americans and donor elites trade off partisanship, policy positions, and support for democratic values when choosing between hypothetical political candidates. Our findings indicate that both citizens and donors punish candidates who endorse violations of democratic principles irrespective of the candidate’s party. However, partisans react very differently to candidates who support voter identification laws that threaten access to the franchise. This polarized response is especially strong among donors. These results suggest that the public and donors may sometimes be willing to forgive transgressions against democratic norms that align with their partisan and policy preferences.

Group Identification and Support for the Supreme Court: Evidence from Evangelical Protestants

AbstractResearch on the determinants of the U.S. Supreme Court's institutional support among the public focuses on three factors at the level of the individual, including satisfaction with its performance, knowledge of the judiciary, and support for democratic values. Evidence from the group level has revealed that the relative importance of these factors can vary, despite the predictions of positivity theory that the effects of all factors should be similar across all subsets of the U.S. population. We seek to explain this inconsistency between theory and evidence through an analysis of evangelical Protestants, a politically powerful and theoretically compelling group. Drawing on group‐based studies, we develop a principled account of when group members will base their institutional support more strongly than others do on their satisfaction with the Court's recent performance, and identify defining features of the information environment of evangelical Protestants that satisfy the model's components. We report evidence from a national survey that the effects of all three major factors differ systematically for evangelical Protestants. We discuss implications of our analysis for an ongoing debate over positivity theory and for identifying other groups for whom institutional and specific support will be strongly linked.

Interpreting conflicting narratives: Young people’s recollections of the terrorist attacks in Norway 2011

In 2011, a Norwegian right-wing extremist killed 77 mostly young people in an attack on proponents of multiculturalism. A critical event of this magnitude is important in a nation’s collective memory. For young people’s political socialization and value orientation, it could be crucial. Adolescents’ memories and interpretations of terrorism are an understudied area. On the basis of different memory narratives among ethnic Norwegian adolescents, who were 13 or 14 in 2011, implications of the attacks, seen as a case of collective memory formation of terrorism, are discussed in terms of how young people remember and interpret the attacks and negotiate between competing narratives. Focus group interviews conducted in 2015–2016 with 18-year-olds showed a marked tension between support for democratic values and numerous references to individuals and organizations having critical views on immigration and diversity and the importance of active agents promoting the conflicting narratives.

Broken back? Efficacy and participation in Asia’s democracies

Previous scholarship describes an inconsistent role for democratic institutions in driving political participation. Some research has detected signs of attachment leading to greater engagement while others observe a negative, statistical relationship (Levi and Stoker, 2000). In the liberal and electoral democracies of Asia, where support for democratic values appears to be growing (Chu and Huang, 2010; Sanborn, 2015), institutions have taken an outsized role in an individual’s decision to participate. This may be reflective of a ‘broken back’ form of democratization, where an engaged citizenry is continually frustrated by poor performing government actors (Rose and Shin, 2001). In this article, I evaluate the role of efficacy, internal and external, on the decision to attend rallies, participate in campaigns, and contact officials. I find that citizens engage in these actions when they are internally engaged in politics and frustrated with government performance. While this finding offers a simple explanation for the decision to participate, it also signifies the obstacles to democratic consolidation posed by poor-performing institutional actors.

Voorbij de politieke crisis

The fear for a widespread political trust crisis has become a fixture in modern debates on the state of democracy. Its most recent appearance is democratic deconsolidation, a supposed value change among younger generations who no longer consider democracy essential. I show that the claim of democratic deconsolidation does not find empirical support. Rather than declining, support for democratic values has been stable across generations, and satisfaction with democracy has even risen over the last few decades. I offer three reasons for the fixture of the political trust crisis in democracies. First, democracy is inherently imperfect as different democratic values cannot always be aligned. Second, there is a pessimistic bias in the public mood towards the functioning of democracy. And third, over the last decades political distrust has become a strong mobilizing factor at election time. While these developments do not signal a political trust crisis, they provide fertile ground for the crisis narrative. The dominant thesis of the political trust crisis has led to a stagnant literature. Instead, I propose three new research questions that scholars ought to focus on to push our understanding of the sources and the relevance of political support.

Conceptions of Shari`a and Support for Militancy and Democratic Values: Evidence From Pakistan

Numerous empirical studies of the relationship between popular support for Islamism and support for democracy and violence have yielded inconclusive results. We suspect that this is largely because scholars have not operationalized support for Shari`a in ways that capture the concept’s multi-dimensionality. In this paper, we employ data derived from a carefully designed survey instrument that casts unique insights into how Pakistanis imagine a Shari`a-based government. We find that formalizing an Islamic government as one that implements Shari`a by providing services and security for its citizens is positively associated with support for democratic values, whereas conceptualizing it as one that implements Shari`a by imposing hudud punishments and restricting women’s public roles is positively associated with support for militancy. These results suggest that it is important to understand how individuals within a particular context construe a Shari`a-based government, and future empirical work should take this.

Otoritarianisme dan Dukungan terhadap Demokrasi: Kajian Meta Analisis

Authoritarians tend to have submissive attitude toward authority, conservative, and ready to punish groups that have different moral attitudes.These characteristics are not conducive for development of democratic society. This meta-analytical study tries to test relation between authoritarianism and support for democratic values. From 60 articles with 117 studies and 74432 total participants, we found that authoritarianism have negative significant correlation with support for democratic values (Mean effect size=-.3892; p< 0.05). Authoritarianism correlates negatively with support for civic liberty and human rights. Authoritarianism also correlates positively with support for blind nationalism, military interventions,prejudice and discrimination toward groups from different races, immigrants and homosexuals. Authoritarianism can be hindrance for democratization processes.

Religious minorities and secularism: an alternative view of the impact of religion on the political values of Muslims in Europe

ABSTRACTThis paper proposes an alternative explanation of Muslims’ endorsement of secular values based on their belonging to religious minorities. We argue that, contrary to what is often asserted in both the academic literature and the public debate, Muslims’ endorsement of secular values is not simply a matter of strong individual religiosity, but may also result from belonging to a religious minority. We suggest that this group-level variable may explain differences in the support for democratic values by Muslims in Europe, in addition to the individual-level variable pertaining to individual religiosity. Our findings show that belonging to a religious minority in the country of origin positively affects the degree of support of secularist values. More generally, they suggest that denominational Muslim identities should be investigated by taking into account the role of belonging to religious minorities. Moreover, the article will show how belonging to a religious minority can moderate the negative effect of religiosity on secular values.

A community of values: Democratic identity formation in the European Union

Has the European Union (EU) succeeded in socializing citizens to support the democratic values it claims to promote? On the face of it, the prevailing skepticism precludes any expectation of a successful socialization of EU citizens to the EU values. Yet, according to the socialization hypothesis, citizens' support for these values is expected to increase as countries accumulate more years of the EU membership. Using survey data to isolate distinct dimensions of democratic values, we examine differences among countries in this regard, as well as changes within countries over time. Results confirm the socialization hypothesis, showing that support for democratic values is generally higher in countries with more years of the EU membership, and that this support trends upwards over time.

Pakistani Conceptualization of Shari'a and Support for Militancy and Democratic Values: A New Empirical Approach

In this paper, we argue that empirical studies of the relationship between popular support for Islamism and support for democracy and violence have yielded inconclusive results, largely because scholars inadequately operationalize respondent support for sharia. Focusing on Pakistan, we demonstrate how using different conceptualizations of sharia has direct impacts upon the observed correlation between such support and support for democratic values and Islamic militant groups. We use data derived from a carefully designed survey instrument that offers unique insights into how Pakistanis define a sharia-based government. We find that formalizing an Islamic government as one that implements sharia by providing services and security for the people is associated with increased support for democratic values, whereas conceptualizing an Islamic government as one that implements sharia by imposing hudud punishments and restricting women's public roles is associated with increased support for militancy. These results suggest that depending on how individuals within a particular context and time period construe a

Ideology, the Affordable Care Act Ruling, and Supreme Court Legitimacy

The received wisdom in the scholarly literature on the US Supreme Court is that the perceived legitimacy of the institution is largely independent of the Court’s policy output. Legitimacy is thought to be rooted in more stable factors, such as support for democratic values, and thus to be immune from ideological discontent with any particular decision. While recent research has demonstrated a general association between political predispositions and legitimacy, questions remain about the extent to which the specific decisions of the Court might shape legitimacy judgments in the mass public. In this paper, we examine the relationship between ideology, political sophistication, and evaluations of Supreme Court legitimacy in the aftermath of the recent decision on the Affordable Care Act. Our findings suggest a substantial role for Court policymaking in shaping perceptions of legitimacy in the mass public, but the nature of the relationship is conditional on political sophistication.

Democracy begins at home: Democratic parenting and adolescents' support for democratic values

Although it is generally assumed that support for democratic values and beliefs develops as a result of social learning, the concrete socializing circumstances through which this occurs are less obvious. This study investigated the relationship between democratic family functioning and democratic values of adolescents. Adolescents' (N = 1,341, 16- to 17-year-olds) reports on their parents' psychological control, autonomy granting, warmth, and behavioural control were considered predictors of adolescents' democratic orientation. The results demonstrated that the democratic functioning of families was positively related to adolescents' support for democratic values when controlling for the effects of gender, political experience, authoritarianism, empathy, and political activism. Additionally, this study examined the possible role of empathy as a mediator in the relation between democratic family functioning and adolescent's democratic values. The results show that empathy was a partial mediator of a family's contribution to adolescents' democratic orientation.

Democratic Values and Public Opinion Toward Immigrants: The Case of Ecuador

AbstractScholars of support for democracy traditionally have been concerned with its causes, with the assumption that higher citizen support for democratic values will enhance democracy's chances of survival in a country. Beyond this fundamental proposition, however, the consequences of varying levels of support for democratic values remain largely unexplored. This article examines the relationship between support for democratic values and views toward immigration in Latin America, a region that is experiencing an unprecedented increase in the movement of people across borders. Through an analysis of Ecuadorian attitudes toward Colombian immigrants, this study finds strong evidence for the argument that support for democratic values has potential benefits not only for democratic sustainability in the region, but also for the reduction of social conflict and distrust that can stem from increasing immigration in a volatile economic context.

Religion and Democracy in Taiwan by Cheng-Tian Kuo (review)

Book Reviews 155 masters as an important part of their direct spiritual heritage. Such claims may have more merit than one may think. STEPHEN ESKILDSEN, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Religion and Democracy in Taiwan CHENG-TIAN KUO. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2008. x, 161 pages. ISBN 978-0-7914-7445-7. US$35.00 hardcover. Around the world religious beliefs and practices are shaping modern political processes in ways never dreamed of by secular modernization theorists, and these inconvenient facts are forcing revisions in core theories and methods of political science. Modern Taiwan is no exception. Taiwan’s vibrant religious landscape has provided the language and the concepts for bestowing or withholding legitimacy at various stages in its transition to democracy. Political discourse in Taiwan continues to be suffused with religious symbolism and some religious organizations have provided important resources for politicians seeking elections. For example, it is incumbent on politicians of all parties and all manner of religious affiliation to take part in Mazu 媽祖 parades, to have moral dialogues with prominent Buddhist leaders, and to attend Christian prayer breakfasts. This book on religion and democracy in Taiwan is an important and timely contribution not only to the study of politics in Taiwan but to comparative politics in general. Unlike other studies on this subject, this book combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Using historical records and personal interviews, the author gives an excellent overview of the religious scene in Taiwan. I know of no other work that gives such a comprehensive yet concise picture. The author organizes his account of each major religious group in Taiwan around that group’s “political theology” and “ecclesiology.” He wants to assess the extent to which such religious beliefs and values support democratic institutions and the influence they might have on contemporary partisan politics. He then presents statistical analyses of the partisan preferences among Taiwan’s major religious groups and their support for democratic values. His statistics show that Daoists and folk-religion believers tend to support the Democratic Progressive Party (民進黨; DPP) coalition (the “pan-green”) and Christians and Buddhists were divided between the DPP and the Kuomintang (國民黨; KMT) coalition (“pan-blue”). Among Christians, the Presbyterians were strong supporters of pan-green, as were members of the Buddhist Dharma Drum Mountain 法鼓山. Other Christians and Buddhists supported pan-blue, with a surprising level of support coming from the Buddhist Compassion Relief Association (commonly known as Ciji 慈濟). However, after controlling for socio-economic 156 Journal of Chinese Religions status and ethnicity, the statistical co-efficients that support most of these trends are rather low, indeed below the threshold of statistical significance. The numbers are suggestive of trends, but do not constitute solid evidence. As for support for democratic values and democratic behavior, Christians rank first, Buddhists second, Daoists third, and folk religious believers last. Within each of these broad groups, there are significant differences. For example, Presbyterians rank higher on support for democratic values (and also for the DPP) than other Christians; Buddha’s Light Mountain (Foguang shan 佛光山) and the Zhong Tai Temple (Zhongtai chansi 中台禪寺) rank higher than other Buddhist groups on support for democratic values. Again, however, the level of statistical significance for such conclusions is low. The author explains these trends in terms of the theologies and ecclesiologies that he has derived from his qualitative studies. Thus, the Calvinist theology and ecclesiology of the Presbyterian Church supports individualism and self-governance. Buddhist “theology” (a Christian concept applied inappropriately to Buddhist cosmology?) and “ecclesiology” engender communitarian identities and stress obedience in religious matters to monastic authorities—and therefore do not support a commitment to democracy. The same is true for Daoist and Confucian traditions and for folk religious beliefs. This explanation is a useful first attempt to suggest answers to suggestive statistical trends. It will provoke fruitful further thinking and debate. But there is obviously still a lot of theoretical and methodological work to be done before we can reach any adequate account of the influence of Taiwanese religion on Taiwanese politics. For one thing, as Kuo recognizes, there are empirical anomalies within his explanatory scheme. Some Buddhists score fairly high on his indicators of commitment to democracy. He...

''Under the Benign Sun of Toleration'': Mathew Carey, the Douai Bible, and Catholic Print Culture, 1789–1791

Mathew Carey's Douai Bible of 1790 was the first Catholic and only the second English Bible published in the Americas. It was also part of the first group of Catholic devotional and instructional works printed in early America, all produced by Carey, and marks the emergence of a Catholic presence in late-eighteenth century American print culture. During the period, Enlightenment attitudes about toleration for religious minorities came into conflict with the Enlightenment's critique of Catholicism's perceived role in history and stereotypes about Catholics as hostile to Bible reading. The appearance of Carey's Bible and other Catholic publications coincided with creation of the first American diocese and appointment of its first bishop, John Carroll, in 1789. During this brief period after limited toleration was first granted to Catholics at the federal level, lay Catholics such as Carey co-opted Enlightenment critiques of European Catholic intolerance to argue for increased toleration of their own faith in the new republic. By positioning themselves as supporters of republicanism and religious plurality, and by contributing to and representing themselves in print and in civic organizations, Catholics announced their support for democratic values, literacy, and the tolerance they sought for their own faith.