Varieties of Democratic Dissatisfaction? Populist Voters and Non-Voters in Germany

Populist parties are now widely recognised to mobilise democratically dissatisfied groups in the population, including previous non-voters. However, we know less about what distinguishes populist supporters from citizens who do not vote despite a populist offer. To address this gap, we compare in this paper the democratic, socio-economic and ideological profiles of populist voters, non-voters and mainstream voters. Using data from the German 2017 election with a uniquely extensive non-voter sample allows to study these differences in a case where both a radical right populist party (the AfD) and a radical left populist party (die Linke) were on the ballot. We draw on theories of democratic legitimacy as well as nostalgic deprivation to study varieties of democratic dissatisfaction and explain under which conditions citizens are likely to support populist challenger parties or rather abstain from voting altogether.