Considering Democracy?

Recent studies have advanced our understanding of democratic backsliding by showing that citizens' considerations about democracy are outweighed by policy interests, thwarted by partisan rationalization, and difficult to influence. This article takes a step back and challenges the basic assumption that American voters do consider democracy at all. Using a selective exposure experiment with 6,086 respondents, I test the antecedent condition that citizens seek information about democratic norms and institutions when forming political considerations. They do not. When instructed to seek information with the purpose of voting, they instead increasingly seek information about regular policy issues. Further, I demonstrate with open-ended measures of salience and knowledge that considerations about democracy are infrequent---that is, democracy is not salient---and often non-meaningful. These findings question whether ordinary citizens care and hold meaningful beliefs about democratic institutions and norms. Their failure to punish anti-democratic tendencies may be more fundamental than previously thought.