Demanding Violence, Punishing Peace Support for Party Violence in India

Some studies show that voters punish parties for violence, while others find that violence can benefit politicians. We argue that core and swing voters support rather than punish violence by co-partisans under some conditions. Parties aim to benefit from violence by portraying it as a response to a threat, provocation, or injustice by an out-group or rival party. Once legitimized by politicians, voters support violence by co-partisans and punish them for peaceful responses. We test our argument with preregistered vignette experiments in a representative survey during the 2022 elections in Uttar Pradesh, India. Our findings support expectations; respondents are more likely to support violence and approve of parties involved in it when it is legitimized. These effects are driven by Hindus as the majority group, in particular core supporters of the incumbent party. Our study establishes the micro-foundations of support for violence in democracies.