Abstract
Voting for Populism? How ‘Populist’ Labels Affect Support for Candidates
Academics widely consider the rise of populism to be one of the major threats to liberal democracy today. Similarly, existing work has found the term ‘populist’ is often used in a pejorative manner by politicians and journalists alike. At the same time, voters have given considerable support to such parties and politicians, with their average vote-share quadrupling in the last thirty years. Thus, while research realizes the potential hostility populism poses to the polity at large, it is unclear what connotations of the term exist to voters. Do voters recognize they are voting for a politician considered to be averse to democracy? Do they simply not care? In this project I field a randomized survey experiment of 2099 respondents in the United Kingdom to measure (1) the effect labeling a politician ‘populist’ may have on their level of support, and (2) voters’ perception of the link between populism and democratic stability. Results suggest voters’ perception of ‘populist’ labels are largely dependent on the candidate’s left-right ideology, as well as the level of populist ideology of the voter.