DEMOCRACY WATCHPolitical Rhetoric Changes Views on Democratic Principles: Study
Most people will agree that over the past several years, American political leaders have been saying — and sharing on social media — unusual things that politicians would never have said a decade or two ago. At times, their words can seem out of character for what a leader should typically say and can even appear antidemocratic in nature. A new study shows that some of that antidemocratic, norm-violating rhetoric reduces support for certain basic principles of American democracy.
Most people will agree that over the past several years, American political leaders have been saying — and sharing on social media — unusual things that politicians would never have said a decade or two ago. At times, their words can seem out of character for what a leader should typically say and can even appear antidemocratic in nature.
As our nation heads into the 2024 election year, what our leaders say will matter even more when it comes to fulfilling the ultimate democratic process of electing the next U.S. president.
These atypical comments or posts made by political leaders are technically referred to as “norm-violating rhetoric.” Although previous research has deemed that such rhetoric does not undermine support for democracy as a system of government, a new study from the University of Notre Dame shows that some of that antidemocratic rhetoric reduces support for certain basic principles of American democracy.
The study, “Norm-violating rhetoric undermines support for participatory inclusiveness and political equality among Trump supporters,” was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Matthew E.K. Hall, the David A. Potenziani Memorial College Professor of Constitutional Studies, professor of political science and director of Notre Dame’s Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy, along with his co-author James N. Druckman of Northwestern University.
In this study, the two researchers shared 20 actual tweets posted on Twitter, now known as X, from former President Donald Trump with a representative sample of individuals — half were Republicans who approved of Trump and half were Democrats who disapproved of him. Participants were randomly assigned to see either tweets with some norm-violating rhetoric or tweets with completely normal presidential language. The team then measured each individual’s responses to a set of questions about four core democratic principles: participatory inclusiveness (everyone gets to participate in elections), contestation (free speech is protected), the rule of law (no one is above the law) and political equality (laws need to protect everyone the same whether they are of a majority or a minority group).