Looking for Alternatives: How Populist Attitudes Affect the Propensity of Individuals to Participate in Different Forms of Political Participation

How do populist attitudes affect the propensity of individuals to choose and engage in different forms of political participation? Recent research indicates that populist attitudes increase the propensity of individuals to cast their vote for a populist party (Akkerman, Mudde and Zaslove 2014). Yet it remains understudied whether these attitudes are also connected to the choice of alternative forms of political participation, such as non-institutional forms of participation. As noted by Kriesi (2014), discontented voters, in the absence of available election options may extend their conflict beyond the electoral arena (see also Schattschneider 1975). Although not entirely congruent, discontent with the elite is reflected in the anti-elite component of populist attitudes, thus offering a valid starting point for our argument. Motivated by discontent and in belief of a volonté générale, we expect individuals with higher levels of populist attitudes to be more likely to engage in alternative forms of political participation, e.g. protests, compared to individuals with lower levels of political attitudes. Empirically, we rely on cross-sectional data from the LiveWhat Project. Covering nine European countries (n=18,370), the survey includes a battery of eight items specifically designed to measure populist attitudes. Additionally, we can test for two prominent explanations of participation, resources and grievances. Although cross-sectional data certainly limits the extent to which we can identify causal mechanisms, our analysis should yield interesting results. The contribution of this paper is two-folded. First, we present a novel argument regarding the potential different influences of populist attitudes, by directly connecting these two, thus extending previous analysis of the effects of populist attitudes on vote choice. Second, if populist attitudes are found to encourage individuals to abstain/participate in alternative forms of participation then the previously discovered influence on vote choice may be less relevant to the success of populist parties than currently believed.