Trading Democracy: Unveiling Hungary's Political Choices in a Conjoint Experiment

• In Event: "Looking for Freedom" and Other Democratic Values

Abstract

The research addresses a compelling question: when confronted with the dilemma of choosing between democracy and partisan loyalty, policy priorities, or ideological convictions, who in Hungary prioritizes democracy? To unravel this puzzle, we conducted a candidate choice experiment involving 1000 respondents from June to July 2023. By comparing the electoral support for undemocratic candidates with that for identical candidates embracing democratic values, we gauged a nation's democratic resilience – the extent to which its electorate is willing to penalize a favored candidate or party for undermining democratic principles. The study reveals that, in Hungary, voters tend to trade off democratic values for all policy preferences included in the experiment, placing a particular emphasis on social issues such as same-sex couples' rights and immigration. Additionally, our investigation explores whether heightened polarization amplifies voters' inclination to sacrifice democratic values in favor of other policy preferences. These findings expand upon prior candidate choice experiments involving 10,001 individuals from seven European countries, including Germany, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Estonia, Ukraine, and Serbia.

Authors

• Elena Avramovska, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

• Johanna Lutz