Democratic norm erosion and partisanship in the United States

Abstract

In recent decades, Americans have grown more dissatisfied with the performance of their democracy, while respect for basic democratic norms has eroded. In this article, we suggest a mechanism which links these two phenomena to the partisan dynamics of political competition. As affective polarization has increased, partisans have become more likely to favour institutional norms that offer their own side political advantage. As a result, supporters of the Republican Party de-emphasize norms of accountability, civility or judicial independence, while supporters of the Democratic Party favour bureaucratic or technocratic modes of governance. We link such patterns of norm evaluation to changes in underlying democratic attitudes, and argue that the main cleavage between the parties is not around support for democracy versus “authoritarian” values but rather a divide between anti-establishment and technocratic approaches to politics. We suggest this pattern may be typical of societies that have been divided by populism, and can help scholars to understand how democratic institutions can be undermined even in the context of apparently robust democratic support.