Milan Svolik Asks: Do Voters Really Support Democracy?

We are badly mismeasuring whether and how much people care about democracy.

Milan Svolik

In this episode of the Democracy Paradox, host Justin Kempf speaks with political scientist Milan Svolik, the Elizabeth S. & A. Varick Stout Professor of Political Science at Yale University and author of The Politics of Authoritarian Rule. Their conversation explores one of the central puzzles in contemporary democracy: why citizens who say they strongly support democracy sometimes vote for politicians who undermine it. Drawing on Svolik’s experimental research, the discussion examines how traditional survey questions often overestimate democratic commitment and why understanding voters’ real trade-offs offers a more accurate picture.

The Democracy Paradox is made in partnership with the Kellogg Institute of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.

Read the full transcript here.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Measuring What Voters Really Believe - 3:33
• Militant Democracy and the Risks of Overcorrection - 16:51
• The Left, the Right, and Who Defends Democracy - 37:18
• The Voter as Democracy's Last Gatekeeper - 52:13

Links

Learn more about Milan Svolik.

Learn more about his book The Politics of Authoritarian Rule (Cambridge University Press)

Learn more about the Kellogg Institute.

Register for the 2026 Global Democracy Conference at the University of Notre Dame.

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