POPULIST ATTITUDES

Populist attitudes refer to a general belief that representative democracy processes do not take into account the needs and desires of the people, because the elite who controls political institutions is either corrupt, alienated or incompetent, and that something must be done in order to place the ‘pure’ people again at the centre of the political process. The concept of populist attitudes stems from the subfield of research on populism that looks at this phenomenon as constituting a superficial ideology. In more precise terms, this ideational approach defines populism as a thin-centered ideology that considers society to be separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic sides (the pure people and the evil elite), and that politics should be the expression of the volonte générale (general will) of the people. By looking at it as a (thin-centered) ideology, we can observe and analyze populism both in the political supply side (parties and political elites at large) and in the demand side – the citizenry. Indeed, most research on populist attitudes has focused on operationalizing and measuring the three components of the definition presented above: people-centrism, anti-elitism and a claim for popular sovereignty. Other studies go further, by looking at additional subsets of attitudes related with specific subtypes of populism, namely exclusionism (considering that not all people are part of the «true people», thus excluding ethnic or linguistic minorities and/or immigrants and refugees) or anti-pluralism (the belief that there is only one way of being a member of «the people», which justifies discriminating attitudes towards specific minoritarian options and behaviors). Research on populist attitudes has mapped its prevalence within the citizenry (often showing that agreement with populist stances is widespread), the factors explaining higher or lower odds of expressing populist attitudes (finding that the key factors often vary from country to country) and their impact in terms of political participation and voting behavior.

Akkerman, Agnes, Cas Mudde, and Andrej Zaslove. 2014. “How Populist Are the People? Measuring Populist Attitudes in Voters.” Comparative Political Studies 47 (9): 1324–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414013512600.
Ardag, M. Murat, Bruno Castanho Silva, J. Philipp Thomeczek, Steffen F. Bandlow-Raffalski, and Levente Littvay. 2020. “Populist Attitudes and Political Engagement: Ugly, Bad, and Sometimes Good?” Representation 56 (3): 307–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/00344893.2019.1661870.
Castanho Silva, Bruno, Sebastian Jungkunz, Marc Helbling, and Levente Littvay. 2020. “An Empirical Comparison of Seven Populist Attitudes Scales.” Political Research Quarterly 73 (2): 409–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912919833176.
Elchardus, Mark, and Bram Spruyt. 2016. “Populism, Persistent Republicanism and Declinism: An Empirical Analysis of Populism as a Thin Ideology.” Government and Opposition 51 (1): 111–33. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2014.27.
Hameleers, Michael, and Claes H. de Vreese. 2020. “To Whom Are ‘the People’ Opposed? Conceptualizing and Measuring Citizens’ Populist Attitudes as a Multidimensional Construct.” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 30 (2): 255–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2018.1532434.
Mudde, Cas. 2004. “The Populist Zeitgeist.” Government and Opposition 39 (4): 541–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.2004.00135.x.
Mudde, Cas, and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. 2013. “Exclusionary vs. Inclusionary Populism: Comparing Contemporary Europe and Latin America.” Government and Opposition 48 (2): 147–74. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2012.11.
Pirro, Andrea L. P., and Martín Portos. 2021. “Populism between Voting and Non-Electoral Participation.” West European Politics 44 (3): 558–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2020.1739451.
Rico, Guillem, and Eva Anduiza. 2017. “Economic Correlates of Populist Attitudes: An Analysis of Nine European Countries in the Aftermath of the Great Recession.” Acta Politica 54 (3): 371–97. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-017-0068-7.
Rico, Guillem, Marc Guinjoan, and Eva Anduiza. 2017. “The Emotional Underpinnings of Populism: How Anger and Fear Affect Populist Attitudes.” Swiss Political Science Review 23 (4): 444–61. https://doi.org/10.1111/spsr.12261.
Santana Pereira, José. 2020. “Put Your Action Where Your Mouth Is: A Relação Entre Atitudes Populistas e Participação Política Em Portugal.” Relações Internacionais 67: 57–72.
Santana-Pereira, José, and João Cancela. 2020. “Demand without Supply? Populist Attitudes and Voting Behaviour in Post-Bailout Portugal.” South European Society and Politics 25 (2): 205–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2020.1864910.
Schulz, Anne, Philipp Müller, Christian Schemer, Dominique Stefanie Wirz, Martin Wettstein, and Werner Wirth. 2018. “Measuring Populist Attitudes on Three Dimensions.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 30 (2): 316–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edw037.
Spierings, Niels, and Andrej Zaslove. 2017. “Gender, Populist Attitudes, and Voting: Explaining the Gender Gap in Voting for Populist Radical Right and Populist Radical Left Parties.” West European Politics 40 (4): 821–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2017.1287448.
Tsatsanis, Emmanouil, Ioannis Andreadis, and Eftichia Teperoglou. 2018. “Populism from Below: Socio-Economic and Ideological Correlates of Mass Attitudes in Greece.” South European Society and Politics 23 (4): 429–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2018.1510635.
Van Hauwaert, Steven M., and Stijn Kessel. 2018. “Beyond Protest and Discontent: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effect of Populist Attitudes and Issue Positions on Populist Party Support.” European Journal of Political Research 57 (1): 68–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12216.