Sore Losers: Does Terrorism and Approval of Terrorism Increase in Democracies When Election Losers Refuse to Accept Election Results?

• Author: James A. Piazza
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211054451
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2022, Vol. 75(4) 1201–1215

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129211054451

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Sore Losers: Does Terrorism and

Approval of Terrorism Increase in

Democracies When Election Losers

Refuse to Accept Election Results?

James A. Piazza

1



Abstract

A necessary component of peaceful democratic rule is the willingness of election losers to accept election defeats.

When politicians and parties acknowledge defeat in democratic elections, they reinforce the peaceful transition of

power that sustains political order. When election losers in democracies reject election results, the public’scon-

f‌idence in democratic institutions is weakened, grievances and polarization abound, and the potential for violent

mobilization grows. In this environment, terrorist activity is more likely. I test this proposition using cross-national

time series panel data and within-country public opinion data for a wide set of democracies. I f‌ind that democracies

experience signif‌icantly more domestic terrorist casualties when election losers reject election results. Moreover, I

f‌ind that public willingness to tolerate and justify terrorism as a tactic increases in democratic countries where election

losers reject election results.

Keywords

terrorism, elections, election loser, democracy, public opinion

Is terrorism made more likely when political actors lose

democratic elections and then refuse to accept the results?

This question is motivated in part by recent events in the

United States. After his electoral loss to Joe Biden in

November 2020, former United States President Donald J.

Trump refused to concede. Almost as soon as polls closed,

Trump proclaimed himself the victor, despite the fact that

vote tallying was ongoing in several key U.S. states.

When U.S. television networks called the election for

Biden two days later Trump alleged, baselessly, that it had

been marred by fraud and that he was the legitimate

winner. The Trump campaign f‌iled, and lost, over 60

lawsuits seeking to overturn the results of the 2020

Presidential Election (Durkee 2021). Throughout No-

vember and December following the election, Trump

continued to refuse to accept the off‌icial election results.

On the day of the Electoral Colle ge certif‌ication,

January 6, 2021, Trump and other Republican elected

off‌icials addressed a large crowd of angry supporters that

packed the Washington, D.C. Mall. Trump repeated his

allegations of election fra ud and urged the crowd to

march to the U.S. Capitol bui lding where certif‌ication

procedures were taking place. “If you don’tf‌ight like hell

you’re not going to have a country anymore,”Trump told

the protestors (Naylor 2021). Once the speeches were

over, the angry crowd stormed the Capitolbuilding. In the

violent melee, at least four people died and 138 police

off‌icers and an unknown number of others were injured.

Ultimately, 147 Republican members of Congress re-

fused to certify the electi on results, claiming that the y

were fraudulent and that Trump was the legitimate winner

(Yourish, Buchananand Lu 2021). Nine months after the

election, and 8 months after the inauguration of Biden,

both Trump and Republican elected off‌icials continued to

maintain that Biden had lost the 2020 election and Trump

was the rightful President (Shephard 2021).

1

Liberal Arts Professor of Political Science, The Pennsylvania State

University, University Park, PA, USA

Corresponding Author:

James A. Piazza, Liberal Arts Professor of Political Science, The

Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16801, USA.

Email: jap45@psu.edu