Political Culture and the Crisis of Democracy. An Analysis of Citizenship Motivations to Justify a Coup D’état in Argentina

Abstract

Latin American democracies are experiencing high instability, signed by economic and political crises and increasing social conflict. In this scenario, the continuity and further development of democracies are far from being granted. From a political psychology perspective, we are interested in understanding public motivations for justifying an authoritarian interruption of the democratic order. On a 454 Cordoba citizens sample (mean age= 37.3, SD=14.22; 52.7% women, 47.3% men), we conducted a Discriminant Analysis to identify the more relevant dimensions for classifying people according to their attitudes towards a coup d’état. Six variables constituted the linear discriminant function resulting from a stepwise procedure (λ = 0.67, X2 = 151.5, gl = 6, p = 0) and enabled to classify 77.3% of the cases correctly. Conservative, normative, and ideological orientations were the more relevant dimensions to predict the justification of a state coup. Additionally, we identified two different attitudinal profiles among the people who are willing to justify a coup, mainly differentiated by their ideological orientations through a two-step cluster analysis. We accounted for a small group of people who justify a non-democratic exit to the socio-political conflict based on progressive ideological attitudes more than conservative or authoritarian orientations. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.