The Ideational Approach to Populism

• In Event: Erosion of Democracy: Populism and Its Causes

Abstract

Populist parties and movements are on the rise in Europe and the Americas. New scholarly work suggests that these parties and movements can best be understood in terms of their ideas or discourse, as political organizations that envision a Manichaean struggle between the will of the common people and a conspiring elite. We move scholarly work forward by proposing a causal theory based on this ideational approach. This theory argues that populism exists as a discursive frame or a set of attitudes that are widespread among ordinary citizens, but that these attitudes lie dormant until activated by contexts of weak democratic governance and policy failure. The process is catalyzed by politicians offering a populist frame and a focal point for organization. We test this theory at the aggregate level, with data on levels of populist discourse across European and US party systems; through case studies of several movements in Europe, Latin America, and the US; and at the individual level, with survey data from Europe and Latin America and the results of experiments in Chile, the US, and the UK.

Authors

• Kirk A. Hawkins, Brigham Young University

• Ryan Carlin, Georgia State University

• Levente Littvay, Central European University

• Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Universidad Diego Portales