The Threat to Democracy from the Centre

It is not the far left or the far right which is least supportive of democracy, argues DPIR alumnus David Adler in the New York Times.

In an opinion piece, David Adler challenges the assumption that moderates defend liberal democracy, its principles and institutions, and that the threat is from the extremes.  Using data from the World Values Survey (2010-2014) and the European Values Survey (2008) of political opinion in more than one hundred countries, he examines the relationship between democratic discontent and the left-right political spectrum.  He argues, that as support for democracy declines, no group is immune to the lure of an alternative. 

Read David Adler's opinion piece, 'Centrists are the most hostile to democracy, not extremists' , in the New York Times, and read his working paper, 'The Centrist Paradox.  Political Correlates of the Democractic Disconnect.'