Populist Attitudes as a Multidimensional Concept

Populist attitudes have thus far been discussed as a one-dimensional concept which was correlated to other political attitudes (e.g. left- or right) or distinguished from related concepts such as elitism or pluralism (e. g. Hawkins & Rovira Kaltwasser 2014). Yet, guided by a definition of populism that understands the phenomenon as a „set of political ideas“ (Hawkins 2010, p. 5) this paper suggests a multidimensional conceptualization of populist attitudes. We assume the populist mind to be composed of three key dimensions: derogatory attitudes towards the political elite, a demand for popular sovereignty and the belief in a homogeneous people. Using survey data from Germany, Switzerland, France and Great Britain (N=1600), we measured populist attitudes on these three dimensions. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed the expected pattern for all four countries. We could also trace left- and right-wing populist attitudes.