Why do people continue to support politicians who attack their democracies? Expert Q&A

By Scott Williamson, Associate Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford

Ahead of a public event in London on May 8 on what the latest research can tell us about the state of democracy, The Conversation asked Scott Williamson, Associate Professor in Comparative Political Economy at the University of Oxford, to help us understand why people don’t always immediately push back when politicians attack their democracies.

Your findings show that people around the world have relatively similar ideas about what democracy means and are relatively committed to this idea of democratic governance. So why are so many people polarised about whether today’s…

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~	Ukraine minerals deal: the idea that natural resource extraction can build peace has been around for decades

~	Mabel Segun: Nigerian children’s writer, poet and broadcaster

~	Tiny technology that can find pollution in South Africa’s water and trap it

~	South Africa’s shift from coal to renewables: how it’s going

~	Burkina Faso and Mali’s fabulous flora: new plant life record released

~	Laudato Si’: A look back on Pope Francis’s environmental legacy

~	Some ‘Star Wars’ stories have already become reality

~	Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a dark parable about coercive control

~	Stuck in a creativity slump at work? Here are some surprising ways to get your spark back

~	How your mouth could be killing your heart