IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v11y2024i1d10.1057_s41599-024-03529-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Illiberal attitudes among US state legislative candidates

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Barber

    (Brigham Young University)

  • Hans J. G. Hassell

    (Florida State University)

  • Michael G. Miller

    (Columbia University)

Abstract

We examine the prevalence of illiberal attitudes among aspiring state legislative candidates in the United States. While extensive research has questioned underlying levels of support for liberal democratic principles among the general public in the United States, we are the first to document the extent to which illiberal attitudes are present among the rising class of political leadership in the United States. We find that while the support for democratic principles is relatively high, there are substantial portions of candidates willing to encourage undemocratic behaviors in some areas. We also see some notable differences between candidates of the two major parties. Specifically, while Republicans are substantially more likely to agree that it is sometimes necessary to challenge election results when they lose, Democrats are more tolerant of restrictions—both from government and employers—on extreme viewpoints. Overall, our findings suggest that support for many democratic principles are high, but certain components of democracy may not be well sustained by those who aspire to elected office.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Barber & Hans J. G. Hassell & Michael G. Miller, 2024. "Illiberal attitudes among US state legislative candidates," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03529-w
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-03529-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-024-03529-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-024-03529-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rogers, Steven, 2017. "Electoral Accountability for State Legislative Roll Calls and Ideological Representation," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 111(3), pages 555-571, August.
    2. Krishnarajan, Suthan, 2023. "Rationalizing Democracy: The Perceptual Bias and (Un)Democratic Behavior," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 117(2), pages 474-496, May.
    3. Robert E. Hogan, 2008. "Policy Responsiveness and Incumbent Reelection in State Legislatures," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(4), pages 858-873, October.
    4. Joseph S. Mernyk & Sophia L. Pink & James N. Druckman & Robb Willer, 2022. "Correcting inaccurate metaperceptions reduces Americans’ support for partisan violence," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 119(16), pages 2116851119-, April.
    5. Daniel M. Butler & Adam M. Dynes, 2016. "How Politicians Discount the Opinions of Constituents with Whom They Disagree," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(4), pages 975-989, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barbara Vis & Sjoerd Stolwijk, 2021. "Conducting quantitative studies with the participation of political elites: best practices for designing the study and soliciting the participation of political elites," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 1281-1317, August.
    2. Ambuehl, Sandro & Blesse, Sebastian & Doerrenberg, Philipp & Feldhaus, Christoph & Ockenfels, Axel, 2023. "Politicians' social welfare criteria - An experiment with German legislators," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-013, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Gilad, Sharon & Sulitzeanu-Kenan, Raanan & Levi-Faur, David, 2024. "Partisan Alignment and the Propensity to Choose a Job in a Government Ministry," SocArXiv ufzcj, Center for Open Science.
    4. Joseph McMurray, 2017. "Ideology as Opinion: A Spatial Model of Common-Value Elections," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 108-140, November.
    5. Gloria Danqiao Cheng & Serena Does & Margaret Shih, 2024. "Partisan differences in perceived levels of democracy across presidential administrations," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Aytimur, R. Emre & Suen, Richard M. H., 2024. "Information Quality, Disagreement and Political Polarisation," MPRA Paper 121112, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Nikolas Schöll & Aina Gallego & Gaël Le Mens, 2021. "Politician-Citizen Interactions and Dynamic Representation: Evidence from Twitter," Working Papers 1238, Barcelona School of Economics.
    8. Eric Brunner & Stephen L. Ross & Ebonya Washington, 2013. "Does Less Income Mean Less Representation?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 53-76, May.
    9. Jacob M. Grumbach & Jamila Michener, 2022. "American Federalism, Political Inequality, and Democratic Erosion," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 699(1), pages 143-155, January.
    10. Richard Burke, 2021. "Nationalization and Its Consequences for State Legislatures," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(1), pages 269-280, January.
    11. Royce Carroll & Hiroki Kubo, 2018. "Polarization and ideological congruence between parties and supporters in Europe," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 247-265, July.
    12. Aina Gallego & Nikolas Schöll & Gaël Le Mens, 2021. "Politician-citizen interactions and dynamic representation: Evidence from Twitter," Economics Working Papers 1769, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    13. Fastenrath, Florian & Marx, Paul, 2023. "The role of preference formation and perception in unequal representation: Combined evidence from elite interviews and focus groups in Germany," ifso working paper series 26, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Socioeconomics (ifso).
    14. Daniel M. Butler & Jeffrey J. Harden, 2023. "Can Institutional Reform Protect Election Certification?," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 708(1), pages 257-270, July.
    15. Jeffrey Harden & Thomas Carsey, 2012. "Balancing constituency representation and party responsiveness in the US Senate: the conditioning effect of state ideological heterogeneity," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 137-154, January.
    16. Christopher B Goodman & Megan E Hatch, 2023. "State preemption and affordable housing policy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(6), pages 1048-1065, May.
    17. Kärnä, Anders & Öhberg, Patrik, 2022. "Misrepresentation and Migration," Working Paper Series 1445, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 11 May 2023.
    18. Olivier Marie & Thomas Post & Zihan Ye & Xiaopeng Zou, 2024. "From Two Heads to One: The Short-Run Effects of the Recentralization of Political Power in Rural China," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 24-040/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    19. Asger Lau Andersen & David Dreyer Lassen & Lasse Holbøll Westh Nielsen, 2020. "Irresponsible parties, responsible voters? Legislative gridlock and collective accountability," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, March.
    20. Akihiko Kawaura & Yasutomo Kimura & Yuzu Uchida, 2024. "Deeds, not words? Speech and re-election of Japan’s local legislators," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 123-140, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03529-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.