Ahead of a public event in London on May 8 on what the latest research can tell us about the state of democracy, The Conversation asked Scott Williamson, Associate Professor in Comparative Political Economy at the University of Oxford, to help us understand why people don’t always immediately push back when politicians attack their democracies.
Your findings show that people around the world have relatively similar ideas about what democracy means and are relatively committed to this idea of democratic governance. So why are so many people polarised about whether today’s crop of politicians are attacking our democracies and what to do about it?
Most people in most countries say it is important to them that they live in a democracy. Research by my colleagues and me also suggests that people tend to agree that competitive elections and protections for civil liberties are central elements of democratic governance.
