Counterterrorist Legislation and Beliefs in Democracy: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Counterterrorist legislation has been on the rise in many democracies after 9/11. While this may be necessary to strengthen the state’s capacity to detect and avoid terrorist attacks, it may also restrain the liberties of residents in the country where they apply. This chapter asks whether the introduction of counterterrorist legislation affects people’s attitudes towards democracy. We analyse this by combining country-level data on legislative responses to terrorism, and individual-level data on attitudes towards democracy. The findings indicate that the average number of counterterrorist regulation negatively affects satisfaction with democracy, but within each country changes in such legislation do not. Overall, changes in counterterrorist legislation are unrelated to satisfaction with democracy. Why this is the case is an important subject for further research.