Liberalism in retreat? Assessing preference for liberal values through a large N conjoint experiment
The rise of right-wing populism in recent years has been accompanied by a seeming retreat of democracy and its liberal correlates. However, empirical evidence for this trend is mixed and inconclusive. Our study sheds light on this issue through a large scale conjoint experiment conducted across 26 countries. We show that on average, respondents demonstrated preference for all liberal values aside from free markets. However, a closer look reveals that these preferences vary greatly across countries. We also find some evidence of backlash against liberal values for politically excluded respondents living in countries classified as more liberal, though this effect was not present for the economically excluded.
