Political Knowledge and Populism in Poland – Dangerous Liaisons?

The literature on populist parties, social movements, and political leaders is substantial, and we have extensive knowledge about the supply side of populism. In contrast, systematic and rigorous investigation into demand-side populist attitudes, their correlates, and their determinants, remains at a significantly lower level of development. In view of the current upsurge in success for populists, this issue undoubtedly requires more scholarly attention. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the links in Poland between political knowledge, populist attitudes and voting for populist parties. The literature on populism and political behaviour suggests that populist attitudes are more widespread among the worse-off, the less well-educated, and the lower social strata, with these groups also more likely to vote for populist parties. We will investigate the causal mechanism behind these correlations. Specifically, we investigate the theory that the key determinant of populist attitudes is political ignorance. We propose and test two main hypotheses. First, we hypothesise that political ignorance gives rise to populist attitudes: individuals with low levels of political knowledge are more likely to accept populist attitudes and perspectives. Secondly, we hypothesise that political ignorance (and the resulting populist attitudes) increase the likelihood of voting for populists: individuals with low levels of political knowledge are more likely to vote for populist parties. We test our hypotheses with the 2015 PNES data. Our preliminary findings suggest that populist attitudes are in fact positively correlated with political ignorance. They are also prominent among supporters of populist parties. Moreover, we find that both political ignorance and populist attitudes are important predictors of populist party support. However, the nature of the causal relationship requires further investigation.