Only some kinds of job losses cause voters to elect strong leaders, study finds
Americans are more likely to turn to authoritarian leaders when jobs are being lost due to offshoring than they are when job losses result from automation, an international research team has found. This is despite the fact that automation tends to lead to greater job losses.
鈥淲e wanted to understand why some economic shocks create anger at politicians and demands for tougher or more radical leadership, while others don鈥檛,鈥� said Leonardo Baccini, a professor in 91丝瓜视频鈥檚 Department of Political Science and the lead author of the paper published in Research and Politics.
The study was based on a survey of 3,500 respondents in the United States.
The researchers found that people expected some form of political intervention when job losses were caused by either offshoring or automation. Job losses caused by bankruptcy did not trigger the same demand for a political response.
Which type of leader is most likely to prevent layoffs?
Participants who took part in the study were presented with short scenarios describing layoffs of 1,000 people caused either by automation, offshoring or bankruptcy (the latter acted as a control group).
They were then asked whether political leaders should intervene to prevent the layoffs, and if so, which leadership qualities were likely to prove most effective in doing so.
Participants were asked to choose between traits that the researchers associated with either populist or authoritarian leaders.
Traits such as being 鈥減olitical outsiders鈥� who 鈥渓isten to the people鈥� were associated with populist leaders. In contrast, traits such as being willing to 鈥渦se force,鈥� being 鈥渦nconstrained by the rules鈥� and being willing to implement divisive policies 鈥渆ven if it upsets other people in the country鈥� were linked to authoritarian leaders.
The researchers found that only offshoring led to an increase in the demand for authoritarian-style leaders.
They said their next steps will be to explore whether Europeans or Canadians react similarly, examine the extent to which offshoring is perceived as a threat from foreign workers and further study how voters react to job losses as new AI technologies emerge.
鈥淭he source of economic shocks matters for their political outcomes,鈥� by Leonardo Baccini, Costin Ciobanu and Krzysztof Pelc, was published in Research and Politics.
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