Correlational analysis reveals a moderate negative association between populist rhetoric and judicial independence, suggesting implications for democratic backsliding.
Key Points
A statistically significant negative association exists between populist rhetoric and judicial independence, highlighting risks to democracy.
Judicial independence can decrease by about 0.5 points with higher populist rhetoric, as per the analysis of country-year observations.
Based on 283 country-year observations, this analysis utilized a correlational approach to study the impact of populist rhetoric.
These findings suggest that rising populism may serve as an early warning indicator for potential democratic backsliding.