The Relationship between Populism and Political Participation

Abstract

While the (negative) impact of populism on the liberal component of democracy has been at the centre of the debate, if and how populism affects different forms of democratic participation has gained far less attention. This is surprising, since the capacity of populist forces to mobilize support and the inclination of populism towards more citizen involvement in political decision-making procedures figures prominent across different conceptualizations of the phenomenon. Most importantly, the inclination of populism towards vertical accountability mechanisms can be linked back to the inherent antagonism between 'the corrupt elite' and 'the good people'. More specifically, while the elite plays a central role in the system of horizontal checks and balances and the people are the key actor in vertical mechanisms checking powerful elites, either through holding them accountable in elections or through their participation in direct democratic votes. Scholarly work on the role populist forces or populist voters play in different vertical accountability mechanisms – like elections and referendums – is scarce. The papers in this panel shed light on this research lacunae and investigate the inclination of populism towards different types of vertical accountability mechanisms across different regions and from both a supply and demand side perspective.