Electoral Fraud and Political Violence in Established Democracies

• In Event: Shaping Support for Democratic Norms

Abstract

Concerns about electoral integrity are often raised in regard to new and emerging democracies, who lack a history of clean and fair elections. Yet, even in established democracies, where cases of actual fraud are exceedingly rare, many people lack confidence in the integrity of elections. In the United States, recent surveys indicate that many Republicans now believe that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen. We use an original battery of questions designed to measure how much citizens condone political violence under various circumstances that was administered in the US, the UK, and the Netherlands. We find a link between beliefs about electoral fraud and a willingness to condone political violence to protect the integrity of an election in all three countries. Our findings suggest that support for political violence is considerably higher than commonly believed. The findings have implications for debates about how to reform elections and how to strengthen political legitimacy.

Authors

• Jeffrey A. Karp, Brunel University London

• Marshall Garland, University of Southern California