Populist Authoritarianisms: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis

• In Event: Political Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Measuring Politics (Table 5)

Abstract

Populists are globally more successful in politics than ever before and this time in an authoritarian fashion. Focusing on contemporary Austria, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and Venezuela, we examine the conditions under which contemporary authoritarian populist parties achieve electoral success. In our analysis, we use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and examine factors from both demand (followers) and supply (leaders and party) side explanations of populist success. For the demand side, we include economic anxiety, and social polarization as explanatory conditions while the supply side conditions include the presence of a charismatic leader and weak democratic incorporation. In addition to those, we include two sociological conditions: mediatization and informal networks. While our findings produce some contradictions, we argue they show clear patterns that resemble classical populism in less established democracies, but that older Western democracies have distinct causal forces at work.

Authors

• Oliver Cowart, Mount Vernon School

• Defne Over, Texas A&M University-College Station

• Irem Tuncer Ebetürk, WZB Berlin Social Science Center