Who’s Fooling Who? When Partisan Loyalty Doesn’t Trump Democratic Commitments

Recent scholarship has deepened our understanding of the factors that drive democratic deconsolidation in Western liberal democracies. A key finding is that partisan bias strongly influences the extent to which citizens are willing to compromise on core democratic values. When their preferred party is in office, citizens tolerate violations of democratic norms, while they display a stronger commitment to democracy when their party is in opposition. In contrast, democratic political cultures foster pro-democratic attitudes and aspirations for deepening democracy. Support for democracy is particularly robust in countries where liberal elements such as legislative and judicial constraints on the executive are more deeply ingrained.

But are citizens in highly democratic countries truly immune to partisan bias? Some argue that motivated reasoning—where individuals process biased information to bolster their party attachment and social identity—is inevitable. Others contend that it also involves a balance between reinforcing party loyalty and making accurate evaluations, influenced by external conditions. In this view, more liberal democracies create informational environments where anti-democratic attitudes are harder to justify, thus constraining motivated reasoning, reducing the risk of partisan-driven anti-democratic views, and elevating democratic commitments over partisan loyalty.

Running on data from the Understandings and Evaluations of Democracy modules in the European Social Survey (ESS), multilevel models provide evidence that the belief that governments should stick to their policies when they contradict public opinion is a minority view across 18 European countries. This view is even rarer in countries with stronger liberal democratic traditions. In addition, while supporters of incumbent parties are more likely to favor sticking to policies, this inclination weakens significantly in more liberal settings, even among those who strongly identify with incumbent parties. These findings lend empirical support for the notion that in liberal democracies, party supporters are less willing to trade off democratic values for partisan loyalty.