Dissatisfied Democrats? Citizens’ Notions of Democracy and Support for Populist Parties in Europe

To what extent do citizens’ notions of democracy affect their support for populist parties in Europe? Previous research shows that those citizens who are dissatisfied with the functioning of democracy and hold populist attitudes are more likely to support populist parties. Yet, we know little about why citizens are dissatisfied with democracy and whether these causes also drive their populist attitudes. In this paper, I argue that citizens’ dissatisfaction with and their (lack of) support for democracy are largely based on how citizens define democracy. If their notions and expectations of the democratic decision-making process are not adequately implemented, citizens tend to be more dissatisfied with democracy. Furthermore, I argue that citizens’ discontent with existing (liberal) democracy is more likely to be associated with populist attitudes when this dissatisfaction is fueled by an illiberal and authoritarian understanding of democracy. Accordingly, citizens’ notions of democracy are likely to be a driving force behind the support for populist parties. Using a comparative dataset that covers twelve European countries, I employ Bayesian multilevel structural equation modelling to test these assumptions and disentangle the relationships between citizens’ notions of democracy, democratic dissatisfaction, populist attitudes and support for populist parties. The findings help to shed new light on the recent success of populist parties in Europe, which benefit from citizens’ alienation from democracy by advocating alternative concepts of democracy that reject fundamental liberal principles and norms.