Let's look elsewhere: On Populist Attitudes and Political Participation

How do populist attitudes affect the propensity of individuals to engage in and choose from 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 covering various European countries. 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.