Parties' Policy Positions and Degrees of Populism: A Comparison of Left-Wing and Right-Wing Populists' Speeches in Parliament

Populism is on the rise. As such, public interest and scholarly attention have grown alike. However, studies often focus exclusively on either left-wing or right-wing populist party behaviour or the measurement of populism. Thus, they lack a substantive comparison between left-wing and right-wing populist actors which is, however, important to understand the success of populists across the entire ideological spectrum. By analysing parliamentary speech data from six Western European parliaments between 1990 and 2018, this paper investigates speech patterns of left-wing and right-wing populists in a comparative framework. Through the application of a populism dictionary, it sheds light on how parties' policy positions interact with varying degrees of populism and how MPs employ this speech pattern strategically. Focusing on a theoretical combination of spatial theory and issue ownership, I show that left-wing and right-wing populists increase their degree of populism when debating issues which are increasingly divergent from the government position.