New evidence on citizens’ reactions to democratic norm violations in an advanced democracy

We investigate citizens’ commitments to democratic norms in a democratic “posterchild”, using the case of Norway. Previous research suggests that citizens often accept elite violations of democratic norms. We distinguish between more subtle infractions and explicit rejections of democracy, and we assess how citizens respond when democratic violations are framed as necessary to achieve pressing societal goals. We find that concrete democratic-norm violations, such as accepting violent rhetoric, meet only weakly punitive reactions among citizens. Policy disagreement or party identification are not important moderators. This may suggest significant opportunity space for elite-driven democratic backsliding even in highly advanced democracies. Yet, citizens heavily punish the most outright rejections of democracy, that question democracy itself, even when justified in order to reach desired political and social outcomes. These findings are consistent with the notion that citizens tolerate specific anti-democratic actions because these are not necessarily considered as violating democracy, while statements clearly violating democracy are punished more.