April 6, 2025 Presentation Open Access

Brettfeld, Katrin; Richter, Thomas; Wetzels, Peter

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  <identifier identifierType="DOI">10.25592/uhhfdm.17373</identifier>
  <creators>
    <creator>
      <creatorName>Brettfeld, Katrin</creatorName>
      <affiliation>Universität Hamburg</affiliation>
    </creator>
    <creator>
      <creatorName>Richter, Thomas</creatorName>
      <affiliation>GIGA Hamburg</affiliation>
    </creator>
    <creator>
      <creatorName>Wetzels, Peter</creatorName>
      <affiliation>Universität Hamburg</affiliation>
    </creator>
  </creators>
  <titles>
    <title>The Influence of Global Crises on Acceptance of Autocracy in Germany. Paper presented at the 82nd Annual Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago (IL), April 3rd, 2025.</title>
  </titles>
  <publisher>Universität Hamburg</publisher>
  <publicationYear>2025</publicationYear>
  <subjects>
    <subject>Autocracy</subject>
    <subject>Crisis</subject>
    <subject>Survey</subject>
    <subject>Attitudes towards democracy</subject>
    <subject>Survey</subject>
    <subject>MOTRA</subject>
    <subject>MiDInt</subject>
  </subjects>
  <dates>
    <date dateType="Issued">2025-04-06</date>
  </dates>
  <language>en</language>
  <resourceType resourceTypeGeneral="Text">Presentation</resourceType>
  <alternateIdentifiers>
    <alternateIdentifier alternateIdentifierType="url">https://www.fdr.uni-hamburg.de/record/17373</alternateIdentifier>
  </alternateIdentifiers>
  <relatedIdentifiers>
    <relatedIdentifier relatedIdentifierType="DOI" relationType="IsPartOf">10.25592/uhhfdm.17372</relatedIdentifier>
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  <rightsList>
    <rights rightsURI="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International</rights>
    <rights rightsURI="info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess">Open Access</rights>
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  <descriptions>
    <description descriptionType="Abstract">&lt;p&gt;This paper investigates how global conflicts and crises influence public attitudes toward democracy in Germany, particularly fears related to war, climate change, and migration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As part of the study &amp;quot;People in Germany: International&amp;quot;, online surveys are conducted every two to three months. Our data tracks how perceptions of societal challenges and associated concerns shape attitudes toward democracy over time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A new measurement is used to gauge acceptance of autocracy, defined by the rejection of democratic norms like open debate and parliamentary oversight, and support for more authoritarian leadership.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Results indicate that about 30% of the German population exhibits some level of autocracy acceptance, with variations across political affiliations&amp;mdash;from 14.8% among Green Party voters to 50.1% among AfD (a far right party) supporters.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Acceptance of autocracy is not confined to right-wing or lower-educated groups but spans various social demographics.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Concerns over access to necessities&amp;mdash;housing, energy, work, and food&amp;mdash;aggravated by fears of war, climate change, or migration, increase the likelihood of supporting autocracy.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Those who view political leaders as incompetent are even more inclined toward authoritarian preferences.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Finally, we present results from vignette experiments which are used to assess whether experimentally manipulated perceptions of military conflicts, such as the Russian war in Ukraine or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have a causal effect on autocracy acceptance among respondents.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
  </descriptions>
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