How the Ethical Positions of Voters and Politicians Matter in a Democracy

This dissertation asks three main questions. First, when a citizen disagrees with their broader political community’s views on ethical matters (hereafter, ethical distance), do they become less supportive of democracy? Second, when a politician disagrees with their broader political community’s views on ethical matters, are they likely to be punished by voters? Third, who distances from the ethical core of their society? Alternatively, who among citizens holds ethical views that align with the broader values of their society? In three different chapters of my dissertation, I provide empirical answers to these questions. Each chapter uses primary data collected from thousands of citizens across two advanced democracies and employs a variety of quantitative methods, including conjoint experiments and observational data. I present statistical evidence that shows that, all things being equal, ethical distance consistently correlates with a decrease in positive democratic attitudes. This finding highlights that ethical distance matters to our understanding of support for changing the system and making it less democratic – even though people are satisfied with the system in its current form. I also systematically document experimental evidence that suggests an individual not only considers whether a politician represents their ethical views but also an individual voter considers whether that political candidate represents the ethical views of their society. I find that politicians are generally punished by voters when politicians disagree with their broader political community’s views on ethical matters. Furthermore, this dissertation demonstrates that there is variation in the type of ethical issues that matter and the types of voters for whom these issues matter. I provide evidence that individuals with right-leaning political ideologies and males tend to depart more from societal ethical positions than their counterparts. The study contributes to the empirical literature on political ethics by systematically identifying the presence of ethical distance within established democracies and underlines an important normative connection of democracy and candidate support with ethical values: to understand citizens’ declining democratic attitudes and their support for a political candidate, it is important to understand not only their tolerance and forbearance but also their ethical position vis-à-vis their society, as democratic attitudes and candidate support are linked to the ethical foundation of society.

Department dc:contributor.department

Political Science

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Islam, Md Mujahedul

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Loewen, Peter P

• Candidate evaluation
• Democratic attitudes
• Democratic backsliding
• Ethical disagreement
• Ethical distance
• Voter behaviour

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/141196

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/141196