Authoritarianism as Cooperation: Theory and Evidence from across the Globe

• In Event: Poster Session: Democracy and Autocracy

Abstract

Why do people believe in authoritarian leaders, and who tend to do so? I start from a simple principal-agent model where people can delegate the decision right to an expert whose interest is misaligned with the citizens. Delegation is better preferred if the expert is better informed relative to the citizens, or if people believe the incentives are less misaligned. As an empirical test, I use the World Value Survey to measure preferences towards authoritarianism as opposed to democracy. Consistent with the model, when people have greater confidence in the current institutions or have less knowledge in politics, they have a stronger preference for authoritarian leadership of army and/or religious figure, controlling for demographics and the actual quality of institutions.

Author

• Ziqi Lu, Harvard University