Abstract
This paper seeks to explore the conditions where leaders from open democracies to authoritarian states become more or less popular in response to perceived economic and social threats to society, along with increases in societal (economic and social) hardship and group polarization effects. To further explore these conditions, we used a psycho-social approach to develop a preliminary conceptual model of how the perception of threats, changes in societal conditions, and the polarization of society can concurrently influence the popularity of a government leader.
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Notes
- 1.
In his Putin’s speech to the Russian parliament, Putin stated, “Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century. As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine drama. Tens of millions of our co-citizens and co-patriots found themselves outside Russian territory. Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself” (Kremlin Archives).
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Bernard, M., Naugle, A. (2018). Examining How Perception of External Threat Influences the Popularity of Government Leaders. In: Hoffman, M. (eds) Advances in Cross-Cultural Decision Making. AHFE 2017. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 610. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60747-4_13
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