Experimental evidence reveals enforcement gaps in labor rights affects political support in authoritarian contexts, suggesting implications for legitimacy.
Key Points
This research investigates the impact of enforcement gaps in prolabor legislation on citizens' political attitudes in authoritarian regimes.
Conducted a preregistered survey experiment in China to assess reactions to labor rights enforcement.
Utilized a follow-up study with a list experiment to gauge preference falsification.
Analyzed public responses to varying levels of labor rights enforcement.
Absence of enforcement leads to a significant decline in trust in government.
Partial enforcement results in less negative public reactions, driven by perceived material benefits.
Findings replicate in follow-up study, confirming core insights on political attitudes under authoritarianism.