The Effect of Inclusive Historical Narratives on Support for Democracy

• In Event: Democracy, Representation and Exclusion

Abstract

Concerns about the state of democracy have surged in several countries amongst new evidence that many citizens do not value democratic principles or accept election results. We propose a new theory for why members of the public may be willing to forego democratic norms and principles, as well as a potential remedy. First, we suggest that the dismissal of some voters as “lesser members of the nation” allows individuals to justify placing restrictions on those voters’ democratic rights. Consistently, findings from original surveys in the world’s two largest democracies -- India and the United States -- show strong, positive associations between perceiving rigid hierarchies of national identity, associating the political opposition with ethnic minorities, and embracing undemocratic policy measures. How could support for democracy be reinforced? We theorize that inclusive historical narratives can counteract the notion that minorities are lesser members of the nation and thus, the ease with which individuals can justify trespassing on their democratic rights. To test the power of inclusive historical narratives to strengthen democratic commitment, we carry out incentivized online experiments in which we randomly assign participants inclusive educational content sourced from real history textbooks. We then use both behavioral and stated preference measures to evaluate whether different historical narratives affect perceptions of minorities’ place in the nation and support for measures linked to voter suppression. Our findings highlight the important role of national identities in shaping support for democratic principles and indicate that battles over history education may carry consequences for democratic resilience.

Authors

• Emmy Lindstam, University of Mannheim

• Nicholas Semi Haas, Aarhus University