📌 Global Snapshot From the World Values Survey
The latest wave of the World Values Survey finds that a plurality of citizens worldwide report support for both democracy and autocracy. This ambivalent camp is sizeable and has been growing, challenging the common assumption that democratic and autocratic preferences form a single bipolar dimension.
📊 Evidence: Global Survey Plus U.S. Experiment
- Data sources: the latest wave of the World Values Survey (global observational data) and a preregistered survey experiment with a nationally representative sample of U.S. respondents.
- Research design: descriptive analysis of global patterns using WVS to identify who is ambivalent; an experimental intervention in the U.S. to improve causal inference and test remedies.
🔍 Who Is Ambivalent — Predictors Identified
- Ambivalence is widespread across countries rather than confined to a narrow demographic.
- Broad predictors identified in the WVS include:
- Knowledge gaps about regime types
- Value orientations that do not clearly prioritize democratic or authoritarian norms
🧪 Preregistered U.S. Experiment Tests Civic Education
- A nationally representative, preregistered survey experiment examines whether clarified information about regime contrasts changes attitudes.
- Key experimental findings:
- Civic education that clarifies the contrast between regime types reduces ambivalent attitudes.
- The intervention provides stronger causal evidence that information and framing matter for regime preferences.
⚠️ Why It Matters
- Ambivalence is not benign: it is strongly associated with greater openness to democratic backsliding.
- The rise of ambivalence worldwide suggests vulnerability in public support for democratic institutions and highlights civic education as a practical tool to reduce that vulnerability and to sharpen public distinctions between democracy and autocracy.
