Countries obsessed with bloodline nationalism see democracy erode, study finds
A three-decade analysis of 63 countries reveals that nations emphasizing ancestral ties for citizenship experience measurable democratic decline—especially when politicians amplify these nationalist messages. The finding matters to policymakers and business leaders navigating geopolitical instability and regulatory risk in increasingly nationalist-leaning economies.
Originaltitel: National identity and democratic trajectories
<p>This study examines whether public attitudes of national belonging influence levels of democracy. We investigate how non-voluntary perceptions of national belonging–requirements of ancestral ties–affect the development across 63 countries over three decades. We analyze both the bottom-up effects of public attitudes and the top-down influence of political elites’ nationalist articulation. Our results show that countries where the majority holds a non-voluntary national identity tend to have lower levels of democracy. Furthermore, these challenges to democratic governance are amplified when non-voluntary national identity interacts with nationalist political articulation by elites. Longitudinal analyses reveal that countries with a stronger emphasis on non-voluntary identity experience a greater decline in formal democracy over time, suggesting an inherent incompatibility between non-voluntary national identity and democratic principles. By explicitly linking majority public attitudes about national belonging to democratic outcomes, our study offers new empirical insights into the relationship between national identity and democracy.</p>