Democratic hypocrisy: support for undemocratic responses to protest in Germany

Abstract Political tolerance is a cornerstone of liberal democracy, yet citizens apply it selectively: intolerance is higher for disliked groups. However, does this extend to democratic hypocrisy, leading to support for undemocratic responses to protest? We address this important question through a vignette survey experiment ( N = 5,000) in Germany, comparing reactions to similar protest tactics used by farmers and climate activists in a realistic, externally valid setting. We show that respondents were not only less willing to grant climate activists key democratic rights but also significantly more likely to support undemocratic responses to climate protesters, including imprisonment without trial. Our findings underline that citizens engage in democratic hypocrisy: their political biases lead them to support undemocratic actions against disliked groups.