Voters for Populist Parties and Basic Human Values: Reflections on the Consequences of Demand-Side Populism in Europe

The proliferation of populist parties has contributed to the pertinence of the academic debate on the consequences of populism. Overall, most of the scholars’ attention has been directed towards supply-side populism, examining under what circumstances populist parties can be a threat to democracy. However, populism is far from being an exclusively elite-driven political phenomenon, which also invites to reflect about the consequences of populist preferences among citizens. Whit this goal in mind, I will utilize data from the last European Social Survey (ESS 2016) to examine what is the structure of basic human values shared by voters of populist parties. Given that human values have been found to orient political attitudes and political behavior, I suggest that relevant insights can be extracted from this analysis. In particular, I expect that populist voters will differ from the rest of the population with regards benevolence, universalism, and self-direction, although this can be mediated by the host ideology to what populism attaches in the electoral competition, and by the individuals’ assessment of the economic and political situation. The implications of these differences in the structure of values will be examined in detail.