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

AuthorJames A. Piazza
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211054451
Published date01 December 2022
Date01 December 2022
Article
Political Research Quarterly
2022, Vol. 75(4) 12011215
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/10659129211054451
journals.sagepub.com/home/prq
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 publicscon-
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 dontf‌ight like hell
youre 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

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