Abstract
Populist Ideology, Approval of Populism, and Support for Democracy
Voters provide a key check on attempts of executive aggrandizement. While previous studies have focused on the link between populist ideology and vote-choice, this short article argues we should also focus directly on whether populist ideology influences voters’ approval of populism as an ideology and subsequently their commitment to liberal democratic norms. Even while, as others have argued, voter-level populist ideology may not directly influence subsequent vote-choice of populist candidates, findings from an original survey fielded in the UK suggest that this populist ideology is associated with voters’ belief of populism as a benefit for government, and importantly, in their acceptance of the breaking of democratic norms.