Societal Pathways

Abstract

Abstract This chapter shows personalist leaders’ behaviour while in office has far-reaching consequences, ultimately lessening the chance that they will face checks on their actions from voters. It argues that leadership groups shape citizens’ beliefs about political opponents and norms of acceptable behaviour, focusing on two mutually re-enforcing explanations for why citizens condone anti-democratic power grabs. The first is polarization, which incentivizes voters to accept democratic subversion to prevent their opponents from securing control. Though some argue that polarization enables the success of anti-democratic leaders, this chapter demonstrates that leaders themselves endogenously drive polarization by attacking state institutions. The second is a shift in their supporters’ view of what acceptable behaviours in democracy look like, which weakens their own commitment to adhere to them. To illustrate this, this chapter shows that ruling party personalism increases the chance that supporters will justify the use of violence in elections in which they lose.