Democratic Backsliding Damages Favorable U.S. Image Among the Global Public

Abstract

U.S. democracy appears to have weakened during the 21st century. Scholars have raised concerns that this democratic backsliding will reduce favorable views of the U.S. among foreign citizens in other democracies. In turn, observers predict that the eroded global image of the U.S. will undercut its ability to win foreign policy cooperation from international partners. We assess these views using three multinational survey experiments fielded in twelve countries with 11,810 respondents. The results show that information about U.S. democratic backsliding indeed decreases respondents’ favorability toward the U.S. However, in our exploratory analysis, we find little evidence that it decreases support for cooperating with the U.S. While America’s global image may suffer from international reporting focused on the degradation of its longstanding democratic system, its ability to garner support for critical policies seems resilient in some important partner countries. Show more