Making Democracy Great Again: Direct, Participative or Local? What Type of Democratic Renewal Do Populist and Radical Voters Support?

Previous studies have highlighted that populist and radical voters in established democracies share similar critics of the representatives. As political actors, representatives are not deemed trustworthy. They are sometimes seen as corrupted and above all failing in their role of advocate for ordinary citizen’s interests. By expressing such reservations, populist and radical voters contribute to alert on the practical flaws of representative democracy. They highlight the necessity, in their view, to have a democratic system that actually complies with the democratic principle of government by the people. The development of this demand paves the way for rethinking the functioning of representative democracy. It could also lead to put into question the choice of representative democracy as the best political regime. If enough evidences are at disposal to assert that populist and radical voters do not defend status quo, but rather a renewal of the democratic system, we do not know which type of alteration to representative democracy they are more likely to support. Indeed, ameliorating democracy in practice could be achieved in three different ways: either by improving the functioning of representative democracy, or by turning to alternative forms of democracy, or by combining representative democracy with alternative forms. Based on their high level of populist attitudes, it is a reasonable assumption that radical voters look for a more balanced distribution of powers between the representatives and the citizens, to the benefit of the latter. Nevertheless, this does not necessarily imply that they root for direct democracy. Building on the fruitful research on democratic discontent, this paper proposes to explore in depth its counterpart that is the support for democratic renewal, on which we know much less. The aims are threefold. First, I will measure the extent to which the need for an increased inclusion of the citizens into decision-making processes drives the vote for populist-radical parties, notably compared to the option of replacing the current elite by a more trustworthy one. Second, I will assess the chances of voting for a populist-radical party depending on the type of democratic renewal that citizens support, between reforms towards local democracy, participative democracy, direct democracy or representative democracy with acute control of citizens. Finally, I will investigate the differences in preferences in terms of democratic renewal, leading to support either the radical left or the radical right. In order to conduct such research agenda, I make use of an original dataset from a cross-national survey, fielded online in six West European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain; average sample of 1,200 per country; data collection scheduled in March 2019). The questionnaire includes especially designed items on preferences in terms of democratic renewal. The findings presented in this paper will contribute to enlarge our understanding of populist radical voting, focusing on preferences for democratic renewal in the future and not solely on critics toward the democratic system in the present. It will also provide new elements to compare the radical right and the radical left, besides economic and cultural positions.