Support for a strong leader or democracy, or both?

The rise of authoritarian-style strong leaders in democracies has prompted scholars to question the change in public support for democracy. However, existing studies have often misunderstood this shift by erroneously equating support for authoritarian strong leaders with a rejection of democracy. They thus fail to recognize the growing public support for both, a conception of democracy termed guardianship democracy. This conception reconceptualizes democracy, viewing strong leaders as necessary for the effective functioning of democracy. By differentiating these two distinct supports for authoritarian-style strong leadership in democracies – authoritarianism and guardianship democracy, we reexamine the impact of factors believed to increase public support for authoritarian leadership. Our analysis, utilizing data from the World Values Survey spanning from Wave 3 to Wave 7, reveals that authoritarianism and guardianship democracy supporters share several common factors that bolster their political convictions. However, two notable differences emerge. First, higher confidence in the elected government and political parties is only associated with guardianship democracy supporters. Second, lower trust in parliament is associated with authoritarianism supporters, but not with guardianship democracy supporters.