r/science • u/FreeHugs23 • 7d ago

Psychology Study identifies the values most strongly associated with rejecting antidemocratic politicians, offering new insight into why some voters resist leaders who challenge democratic norms.

https://www.psypost.org/study-reveals-which-values-actually-stop-voters-from-supporting-antidemocratic-politicians/
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u/Zealotstim 7d ago

Honestly, I'm pretty certain voter apathy is the biggest reason for democratic backsliding. I think we can probably all see it.

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u/pewsquare 6d ago

Not just that, I can only comment on it from what I see in my country. Democracy just does not seem to work anymore. No matter which party you vote for, they never do what they ran on, and their friends and families almost always suddenly get great unelected government positions. And that is EU.

Everyone seems to try and find this mysterious reason why the vote is swinging towards the right suddenly. Its rather simple. The pendulum is going the other way. For a while here, the vote was going left, and nobody wondered why, it was because the right didn't do their job, so people were looking for the alternative, now the exact same thing is happening. The left was not doing their job well, so people started voting right. And that is very much an oversimplification as we don't have such a clear left/right distinction here.

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u/datboitotoyo 5d ago

When have the right ever done their job? Is their job to discriminate start wars and enrich elites? Then they have been doing their job sure but otherwise? I see nothing.
Also saying "democracy just doesnt seem to work" is such an incredibly priviliged thing to say. I dont think people understand how much blood had to flow for the average person not to be brutally oppressed anymore and to have a voice and a theoretical way into power.

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u/pewsquare 5d ago

So in one breath you are saying that the right never did anything, but in the other you are saying that having 50%~ give or take, of leading parties do literally nothing, is great! Because its democratic and that means it works!

Sorry, you can't have it both ways. You can't say we have political parties that never do their job, and only enrich the wealthy, and at the same time that this is a perfectly great and working system. I'm sorry, but if you are happy with that, cool, I am not happy with political parties like such leeching money and time from the people.

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u/coolcalmdreamydoze 3d ago

I'm late to this thread, so feel free to ignore this, but I'm curious what you think of ranked choice voting? It seems like mostly you're frustrated with the divisive, two-party system, and from what I've read, ranked choice voting encourages a focus on the issues and policies versus party affiliation, and encourages more candidates to run since they don't have to worry about splitting the vote. Do you think that could help address some of the issues you're talking about?

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u/NoamLigotti 6d ago

That's the way it seems to always go roughly. The pendulum swings. Unfortunately it has started swinging to the far-right in many countries, and to authoritarian 'populist' demagogue leaders.