11:00 - 13:15
Friday-Panel
Chair/s:
Florian Foos
Discussant/s:
Denis Cohen
Meeting Room L

Alexander Wuttke, Florian Foos
Making the Case for Democracy: The Effects of Democratic Talk on Citizens' Support for Liberal Democracy

Liron Lavi, Naama Rivlin, Clareta Treger, Michal Shamir
Representation in the Eyes of the Public as a Detriment to Support for Democracy

Nicholas Haas, Emmy Lindstam
My History or Our History? Historical Revisionism and Entitlement to Lead: Experimental Evidence from India
Making the Case for Democracy: The Effects of Democratic Talk on Citizens' Support for Liberal Democracy
Alexander Wuttke 1, Florian Foos 2
1 University of Mannheim
2 London School of Economics and Political Science

In light of the third wave of autocratization and wide-spread concerns about citizens turning away from democracy, we test the effectiveness of "democratic talk" as a means of countering democratic fatigue among German citizens. Specifically, we designed and implemented a pre-registered online field experiment in collaboration with eight German federal and state representatives, representing 5 German parties (1 CDU, 3 SPD, 2 FDP, 1 Green, 1 Linke), where we invited a heterogeneous sample of German citizens recruited via quota sampling on Facebook to participate in one of 16 Zoom townhalls. The townhalls were advertised as opportunities for citizens to meet representatives and discuss with them about COVID-19. 14 townhalls involving around 250 participants took place in November and December 2020, and the remaining 2 townhalls will take place in January 2021. Each representative conducts two townhalls. We used pair-random assignment to determine whether during the townhall, the representative engages in a particular style of communication that we conceptualise as "democratic talk", or not. Democratic talk deliberately acknowledges the existence of diverging opinions and the general legitimacy of critiques of democratic practices while actively making the case for liberal democracy and democratic processes. We test the proposition that 'democratic talk' strengthens support for liberal democracy and alleviates reservations towards democratic institutions among citizens who have grown skeptical of democracy. Attitudinal outcomes are measured via a three-wave panel survey, and behavioural outcomes are measured via e-petitions and email newsletters townhall participants can sign or subscribe to.