Publication: Populism and Understandings of Democracy
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Date
2024-11-07
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Taylor & Francis
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Abstract
The advancement of populism has led to a vivid discussion of its corrective or threatening potential for representative democracy. The impact of populism may depend, however, on the particular vision populist voters hold of democracy. Using questions from the European Social Survey (2012) that aim to measure the population's understanding of the concept of democracy, this paper explores whether populist voters differ significantly from non-populist voters in their understanding of democracy. The results suggest that European populists are not less likely to conceive of democracy in terms of electoral competition or liberal checks and balances. Rather, they are more likely to add elements of direct democracy, government transparency, and enhanced welfare state to those standard elements of democratic competition and strongly endorse democratic responsiveness by parties in office as public opinion shifts. Yet, the data also show that populist voters reject the protection of minority rights, are less satisfied with democracy than non-populist voters, and are less committed to democracy itself as an important ideal.
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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IE School of Politics, Economics & Global Affairs
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Citation
Wiesehomeier, N., & Singer, M. M. (2025). Populism and Understandings of Democracy. In The Ideational Approach to Populism, Volume II (pp. 161-182). Routledge.