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America’s constitutional framework was designed specifically to prevent the concentration of power and to impede any president’s authoritarian aspirations. It is certainly being put to the test right now.
When US vice-president J.D. Vance recently wrote that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power”, he gave perhaps the clearest indication to date that the Trump administration might ignore court rulings, potentially laying the ground for what some have argued would amount to a dictatorship.
Given this context, it certainly seemed plausible when a recent Channel 4 study suggested UK democracy could be heading towards a similar crisis. However, we have conducted research that paints a very different picture of gen z’s tendency towards dictatorship.
Media reports about the Channel 4 research claimed over half of gen Z in Britain supported the country becoming a dictatorship. Headlines included: “Voting’s such a hassle… of course Gen Z like dictators”. An article published the day after Holocaust memorial day lamented: “Of all the days to discover Gen Z’s misguided affection for dictators”.
The study actually asked 13-to-27-year-olds whether they agreed that “the UK would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections”. In their findings and press release, Channel 4 didn’t suggest that this equated to support for a dictatorship – but just about every news and comment piece that picked up the study did.
It might seem like a very justifiable interpretation, though the first sign that we should be cautious was that two major ongoing academic studies which ask a very similar question to the one released by Channel 4 get very different results.
In 2024, the British Election Study (BES) found only 13% of gen Z across Great Britain agree or strongly agree that “the best way to run the country would be to have a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament and elections”.
In 2022, the World Values Survey (WVS), a study which has tracked attitudes to democracy since 1981, found 27% of gen Z in Britain think that “having a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament and elections” is a very or fairly good way of governing the country.
So the BES finding is around a quarter the level found in the Channel 4 study, and the WVS finding is around half the level. Together, these suggest we should be extremely wary about putting too much weight on the Channel 4 finding.
As an aside, the difference between these two larger, more rigorous studies is very likely to be related to the varying response categories used. The BES allows people to choose “neither agree nor disagree”. The WVS does not include this option.
What gen Z actually think
To explore these discrepancies further, we ran our own test in a survey of 1,000 13-to-27-year-olds. We simply replaced the wording “strong leader” with “dictator”. Instead of 52%, we found only 22% agree with that version.
That still leaves a worryingly large minority of gen Z who seem to be supporting an extreme form of autocratic government. We tested that view further by asking those who agreed whether that meant they wanted no control or checks on the leader by MPs in parliament and no national elections at all. When these implications are spelled out, around half say no, actually, we would like some control and elections.
When you work it all through, only 6% of gen Z really support a dictatorship, in any recognised sense of the term. The problem we seem to be facing is not a whole generation of autocratic young people but a complex question answered quickly in online polls and hugely overinterpreted in subsequent reporting.
And the fact that this interpretation was picked up so widely really is a problem, in at least three ways.
First, it adds to sense of generational division, and particularly our willingness to believe that the current generation of young is the worst ever. It’s a deep human trait for older people to think ill of the young, and it’s been supercharged for us today by the media environment, including social media. Generational labels have become helpful shorthand for spreading stereotypes and division.
Read more: Boomers vs millennials? Free yourself from the phoney generation wars
Second, there is a risk that attention-grabbing discussion encourages a sense among gen Z that supporting dictatorship is the norm. Media coverage of one poll doesn’t mean the line it pushes will become immediately true, but we know perceptions of what the norm is for our group can have powerful effects on our own views and behaviour.
If we have concerns about gen Z’s connection to liberal democracy, we should be extra careful not to spread an exaggerated negative view.
Which leads to the third problem – that the noise around this distracts us from real and serious issues with gen Z’s engagement with politics and institutions. We risk labelling a whole generation as “authoritarian” when the real problem is a lack of confidence in the delivery of democratic institutions and systems.
Our analysis of the WVS shows precisely this. Gen Z are the least likely to think we even currently live in a democracy. That’s perhaps understandable from their perspective when so many policy decisions – from pensions and housing, to support for the costs of education and childcare – have favoured older people.
Older generations face a serious challenge convincing gen Z that democracy and our political institutions can work for them. But exaggerating their desire to rip it all up doesn’t increase the sense of urgency, it just adds to the drama of generational division. It risks giving a false sense of momentum to the decline of democracy, which is the last thing we need right now.
Bobby Duffy receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council who funded the World Values Survey in the UK.
Paolo Morini receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council who funded the World Values Survey in the UK.
