Equal or Less Than? How National Narratives Undermine or Uphold Democracy

Abstract:

Recently, leaders have come to power in contexts ranging from Brazil to India and the U.S. aiming to redefine national narratives and challenge democratic institutions. We theorize a link between these twin developments: exclusionary (inclusionary) narratives make it easier (harder) to justify trespassing on the democratic rights of political opponents. We test our theory in two pre-registered studies (N=5,486) in India and the U.S. We first document a strong association between internalized narratives and democratic support. Second, we find that experimentally assigning inclusive national narratives from  history textbooks increases ethnic minorities' perceived centrality to the nation, as well as stated and revealed democratic support among individuals who associate the political opposition with minorities. Experimental effects only materialize in the U.S., a difference we attribute to a comparatively dominant exclusionary narrative in India. Our study provides new insights into national narratives and how they can alternatively undermine or undergird democratic support.