Demands and Actions – Direct Democratic Preferences and Participation of Citizens with Populist Orientations

Various political actors call for more direct democracy in Europe. Populist parties and right-wing populist representatives in particular are considered to be strong advocates of direct democratic procedures. They argue that the power of the elites should again be assigned to the people (cf. e.g. Mudde 2007). However, the question arises whether such demands from the supply side of political competition also reflect the procedural preferences of citizens with populist orientations. This is where the present paper comes in. First, it analyses the extent to which citizens with populist orientations or a populist party vote in Germany support direct democracy. Second, it explores the question of whether such a link between populism and direct democracy exists when the focus is not on ideals but on the reality of political participation. The present study builds on existing findings (e.g. Bowler et al. 2017; Jacobs et al. 2018) and provides important new insights into the ideal and reality of participation in direct democratic innovations. A theoretical discussion of the place of direct citizen participation in common populist concepts is followed by empirical analyses of survey data from 2018. Focussing on Germany, these analyses show positive relationships between populist orientations and populist party elections on the one hand and preferences for direct democratic procedures on the other. However, direct democratic participation and effective participation are associated negatively with populist orientations. This finding for Germany shows, among other things, limits to the direct democratic mobilization of population groups that are sceptical of representative democracy.