Affective polarization and support for democratic principles in Israel

This study examines whether citizens at different levels of affective polarization weigh democratic principles and institutional features differently when evaluating political alternatives in Israel. We analyze two conjoint survey experiments conducted among Jewish Israelis in 2024 and 2025. The randomized conjoint attributes allow us to estimate the effects of democratic and institutional attributes on political evaluations and to assess whether these effects vary across observed levels of affective polarization. To evaluate this heterogeneity, we use both an in-party/out-party measure and multiparty spread-of-affect measures. Across both studies, joint tests provide no consistent evidence that the effects of democratic attributes systematically vary with affective polarization. The findings suggest that, in the absence of explicit partisan cues, affective polarization does not systematically condition the weight citizens place on democratic principles and institutions. Because affective polarization itself is not experimentally manipulated, these findings concern heterogeneous responses to randomized democratic attributes rather than the causal effect of affective polarization, and they do not address situations in which democratic principles explicitly conflict with partisan interests.