Highlights of Findings

Highlight 1. Even models widely viewed as well-aligned (e.g., Claude) display measurable authoritarian leanings. When asked for role models, up to 50% of political figures mentioned are authoritarian—including controversial dictators like Muammar Gaddafi (Libya) or Nicolae Ceaușescu (Romania).

Highlight 2. Queries in Mandarin elicit more authoritarian leaning responses from LLMs than queries in English. Language influences political behavior, as queries in Mandarin elicit higher approval for authoritarian leaders compared to those in English.

Three-component framework for testing democratic-authoritarian leaning in LLMs.

Introduction: Do LLMs prefer democracy or authoritarianism?

Models like GPT, DeepSeek, or Claude don’t vote, don’t stage coups, and don’t deliver impassioned speeches in parliament (yet). But we humans do. As millions of people integrate language models into their daily lives, these systems are becoming increasingly influential—shaping the information ecosystem and contributing to shifts in public opinion and personal beliefs.

That’s why the kind of worldview they implicitly encode matters.

Most prior work on political bias in LLMs has focused on the familiar left–right spectrum, often using the Political Compass test. This test gauges attitudes toward free markets, sex outside marriage, or even the legitimacy of abstract art. But in a world facing the rise of authoritarianism and the erosion of democratic norms, we believe it's time to look beyond social and economic preferences. Instead, we examine questions of power, legitimacy, and governance along the democracy-authoritarianism spectrum. Do LLMs uphold democratic values like press freedom, judicial independence, and fair elections? Or are they willing to tolerate censorship, repression, or indefinite rule—especially when framed as necessary for stability?

These questions go beyond being pure academic research. If AIs normalize authoritarian values—even subtly—they could undermine democratic culture, especially in contexts where civic trust is already fragile. And as democratic institutions weaken, efforts to regulate or align AI may become much harder to achieve in the first place. After all, it is democracies—not autocracies—that tend to prioritize transparency, accountability, and public interest in technologi...

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