Replication Data for: Does Knowing Democracy Affect Answers to Democratic Support Questions? A Survey Experiment in Indonesia

The validity of democratic support survey questions has been questioned due to variations of democratic understanding levels among respondents, especially in new democracies. Citizens with poor knowledge of the concept tend to offer less informed answers and preferences. We conducted an original survey experiment in Indonesia where we exposed respondents to a short list of characteristics of democracy before asking them to rate their own democratic support levels. We found that the treatment considerably lowers democratic support and satisfaction levels, but only among low-education respondents. Our contribution is twofold: first, we demonstrate that aggregate levels of democratic support are to be considered with caution; second, contrasting with observational studies, we show that knowing democracy does not necessarily imply loving it.