In 2014, 1 in 6 Americans said "army rule would be a 'good' or 'very good' thing," The New York Times reported Tuesday. That marks a significant increase from 1995, when just 1 in 16 reported having a favorable opinion of the autocratic style of government.
The data comes from a preview of a study to be published in January in the Journal of Democracy. Study authors Yascha Mounk, who wrote the memoir Stranger in My Own Country, and political scientist Roberto Stefan Foa found approval particularly high among millennials, with only 19 percent saying it would be "illegitimate for the military to take over if the government were incompetent or failing to do its job," the Times reported. Forty-three percent of "older Americans" said it would not be legitimate for the military to do so.
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