Testing the Boundaries of Authoritarian Support: Populist Attitudes Toward Domestic Military Deployment

Abstract

Liberal democracies are increasingly confronted with processes of autocratization. These developments take multiple forms, including the aggrandizement of executive power or attempts to undermine judicial independence. In some cases, democratic erosion takes on coercive forms, such as the domestic deployment of the military against protests opposing government policies. This thesis examines how populist attitudes, justification frames, and political congruence influence support for domestic military deployment. Drawing on original factorial survey experiments conducted in the Netherlands (n = 571) and the United States (n = 633), the findings provide partial support for the hypotheses. Populist attitudes significantly increase support among specific ideological and demographic groups in the Dutch context, but not in the American case. Moreover, the justifications seem to be less relevant in determining support than the political congruence between citizens and incumbents, which significantly impacts support only in the United States. This raises questions about the resilience of liberal democratic norms under conditions of partisan alignment. These findings suggest that contextual and partisan dynamics may outweigh ideological predispositions in shaping support for authoritarian uses of military force.