Event Report: Democratic Backsliding Damages Favorable U.S. Image Among the Global Public: Implications for the Asia-Pacific Region
On March 17th, 2025, from 12:00 to 1:30 PM, the Centre for the Study of Global Japan hosted the event “Democratic Backsliding Damages Favorable U.S. Image Among the Global Public: Implications for the Asia-Pacific Region.” This event featured Yusaku Horiuchi, Professor of Government and Mitsui Professor of Japanese Studies at Dartmouth College. Drawing on several of his research studies, Professor Horiuchi explored how democratic deterioration in the U.S. has impacted its perceived soft power, international status, and foreign policy influence among its key global allies.
Professor Horiuchi began his presentation with the Capitol riot of January 6th, 2021, describing it as a critical juncture in the United States’ democratic trajectory. He argued that democratic backsliding constitutes a turning point in the U.S.’s identity as a stable democracy, which has long underpinned its claim to global leadership and diplomatic alliances. Within this context, Horiuchi raised several research questions: Does democratic backsliding affect foreign public opinion about the U.S., and how does it affect its soft power and perceived international status?
Horiuchi presented the findings from his co-authored study, which employed a series of survey experiments across various countries identified as the U.S.’ closest allies, including Canada, Australia, Germany, Japan, and the UK among others. These experiments involved presenting a fabricated executive summary report detailing democratic backsliding in America to a treatment group, while providing neutral information to the control, and measuring the shift in favorability towards the U.S. and its perceived international status. The results from the first study revealed a statistically significant negative impact of exposure to the treatment information, indicating a meaningful effect on international attitudes. To further examine the causal relationship between democratic backsliding and the respondents’ negative perception, a second study incorporated an “economy treatment” which presented another treatment group with a report on economic decline in the U.S. This manipulation yielded no significant change in favorability, suggesting that foreign public opinion was indeed linked to concerns of democratic backsliding.
The research also explored the impact of democratic backsliding on policy preferences. A third study focusing on three countries in the Indo-Pacific region—Japan, South Korea, and India—found that while a negative shift in favorability was evident, there was no significant impact on support for specific U.S. foreign policy priorities. Questions regarding U.S.–China economic relations, security alliances like The Quad and AUKUS, and stances on issues like Taiwan and the war in Ukraine showed minimal effects. Professor Horiuchi concluded that while democratic backsliding in the U.S. does harm its soft power, it may not necessarily undermine cooperation on strategic foreign policy objectives.
After the presentation, there was an enthusiastic question-and-answer session by members of the audience. Attendees raised questions ranging from the role of President Trump to the significance of foreign public opinion in domestic policy. We would like to thank Professor Horiuchi for sharing his pertinent research findings and the audience for their participation.
