Populist Voters: Temporarily Unheard or Structurally Dissatisfied?: A European Multilevel Analysis Measuring the Effect of Populist Government Participation on the Satisfaction With Democracy Gap Between Populist and Non-Populist Voters
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2022-06-24
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en
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Populism has become a significance factor in European politics. This growing populist support is stimulated by voters feeling unrepresented by mainstream political parties, causing a gap in satisfaction with democracy between populist and non-populist voters. But how do both groups of voters react to a populist party in government? This study aims to find out how this gap is affected after populist government participation. In order to find out, I use ESS data from 2002 till 2018 to conduct a multilevel analysis across 27 European countries. The results show that populist voters are less satisfied with democracy than non-populist voters, resulting in a gap between the two groups. This gap, however, decreases after a populist party enters government, as populist voters’ satisfaction with democracy increases, while non-populist voters’ satisfaction with democracy is unaffected. When distinguishing by party role in government, the gap decreases too. Populist junior parties positively affect both groups, A populist prime-minister positively affects populist voters’ satisfaction with democracy, while not affecting non-populists’ satisfaction with democracy. Non-populist voters only react negatively to a populist single-majority government. This negative effect, however, is smaller than the positive effect for populist voters. A populist party supporting a minority government, though, does not affect the gap. This means that, at least in the short term, populist government participation is helpful in decreasing the gap between the two groups.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen