Repression's Effects on Protests and Political Attitudes towards the State
P3-03
Presented by: Amy Yunyu Chiang, Marlene Mauk
Does government repression affect political attitudes? Political-culture research has long considered citizen support of paramount importance for political regimes to thrive and survive. Yet current literature on repression and dissent mainly focuses on how states use coercion and repressive behavior and why individuals participate in protests, but provides little clear evidence as to what extent repression affects citizen attitudes toward the state, and in particular, political trust and support for the government. Our contribution aims to close this gap in the literature by investigating how incidents of repression influence citizen attitudes towards the political system. We suggest repression to affect citizens’ trust in the government both directly and indirectly through the stifling of pro-democracy protests and critical media coverage. Combining survey data on political attitudes from the World Values Survey with
country-level data on repression and pro-democracy protests from the Varieties-of-Democracy project (V-Dem) for 48 autocracies worldwide, we use multi-level models to examine the complex relationship between repression, protest, media coverage, and political support.
country-level data on repression and pro-democracy protests from the Varieties-of-Democracy project (V-Dem) for 48 autocracies worldwide, we use multi-level models to examine the complex relationship between repression, protest, media coverage, and political support.