Semuhi Sinanoglu (2025). “Why citizens endorse authoritarian financial repression?” Working paper.
An autocrat's business allies may be politically expedient targets; visual conjoints in Turkey.
Why do citizens endorse financial repression in autocracies? An autocrat may financially squeeze the business community, especially during economic downturns. However, such extraordinary taxation may lack broad public support and trigger backlash. I designed novel visual conjoints using AI-generated LinkedIn profiles of businesspeople and measured public support for their repression in Turkey, varying cues of co-optation, and firm’s characteristics. The results indicate that people are more likely to condone the extra-taxation of co-opted business elite perceived as rent seekers responsible for the crisis, suggesting that an autocrat’s business allies may be politically expedient targets. I then discuss the findings’ external validity with illustrative cases from different types of autocratic regimes. This article contributes to growing scholarships on public support for taxing the rich, authoritarian repression, and the cost of political-connectedness.