New research reveals American public reactions to foreign electoral intervention through experiments. The study finds that even modest interventions polarize citizens along partisan lines.
Americans condemn foreign involvement more when a power supports the opposition than when supporting their own party. This exposure also leads to greater loss of faith in democracy and increased calls for retaliation.
Interestingly, Americans reject military responses even when their own political party is targeted by electoral attacks on U.S., despite readily condemning similar actions against their opponents abroad.
These findings suggest that foreign election interference can significantly divide adversaries and weaken democratic institutions without triggering the same public demand for conventional military retaliation seen in other contexts.
| Public Opinion and Foreign Electoral Intervention was authored by Michael Tomz and Jessica L. P. Weeks. It was published by Cambridge in APSR in 2020. |
