System justification and democracy: Is liberal democracy part of the status quo?

Abstract Research has conceptualized system justification as an overall perception of legitimacy of the status quo. However, there is mixed evidence to determine whether individuals construe political systems and values that uphold them as part of such status quo. We reasoned that if individuals construe the status quo as encompassing the political system and its values in the United States, system justification should predict support for current political institutions and liberal democracy. Relying on a representative survey and an experiment (N = 1994), we found that system justification was related to support for current institutions but not liberal democracy principles, even when making salient different components of the status quo (i.e. economic inequality and liberal democracy). Results suggest that researchers studying legitimacy of intergroup settings or political institutions should measure legitimacy of those institutions rather than general perceptions of fairness, as individuals might not construe the status quo as encompassing those institutions.