Events

Event Description

The Levitt Center invites you to join us for a lunch talk with Associate Professor of Government Erica De Bruin entitled "When are Presidential Power Grabs Condoned? Evidence from Survey Experiments in the United States"

In the United States, growing evidence suggests that voters often trade off adherence to democratic norms against other considerations, such as partisan gain. Yet less is known about which types of undemocratic actions are most likely to gain public support, and under what conditions. This talk presents evidence from a series of survey experiments showing that Americans are strikingly willing to support undermining checks and balances on the president in response to crises that threaten their physical security, such as terrorist attacks or pandemics, while remaining more cautious in the face of economic and political crises such as threats to electoral integrity. The evidence also shows that Americans are more willing to support the erosion of accountability to other branches of government than accountability to voters or civil society.

RSVP here for lunch.