An insatiable hunger for charisma? A follower-centric analysis of the relation of populism and charismatic leadership

Populism has become a definitive and constant element of modern politics: while some populist leaders have emerged to governing positions, other mainstream politicians have switched to more populistic rhetoric and strategy. According to the scholarship (Barr, 2019; Albertazzi and McDonnell, 2008; Laclau, 2011; Moffitt, 2016; Weyland, 2001, 2017; Diehl, 2019; Urbinati, 2019), leaders captured the centre stage in populist politics, focusing voters’ attention. They are those who promise to give back the voice to the people, fight against the enemies of the people (political elites) and protect the people from external threats (i.e. global economic interests, migration). Scholars apply two different strategies to analyse the relationship between populist leaders and followers. On the one hand, the ideational literature of populism traditionally described the phenomenon as a thin-centred ideology (Kaltwasser et al. 2019) and assumed voters with populist attitudes could be found all over the ideological spectrum, strongly affecting the relationships between leaders and followers. This perspective also is amended by the communicative-discursive approach of populism (Kefford et al. 2021) by including populist rhetoric in the analysis. Still, scholars do not provide answers to why populist citizens would follow populist leaders. On the other hand, the ‘political and strategy approach’ focuses more on the leaders. Researchers (Albertazzi and McDonnell, 2008; Diehl, 2019; Pappas, 2019; Urbinati, 2019; Weyland 2001, 2017) see the key of success in their charisma, but literature – excluding some remarkable attempts (Andrews-Lee, 2021; McDonnell 2016; Merolla and Zechmeister 2011) – falls short of explaining and analysing empirically this symbolic, tight and apparently direct relationship between populist leaders and their followers. This study brings together these two different perspectives by relying on populist attitude scales and leadership measurements developed by social psychologists in leadership studies (Metz 2021). Following Max Weber (1978) and his followers (Willner 1985), who originally conceived charisma as a notion that is not an attribute of leaders themselves but is a quality that inheres in the relationship between a leader and his followers. Therefore, this study tends to stay away from leader-centrism and externally labelling various politicians as charismatic leaders, but rather turn to the perceptions of voters and argue that it is a concept better captured in the eyes of the people and their bonds to certain leaders. Unfolding the relation between populism and charismatic leadership, instead of treating populist attitudes as an explanatory variable for vote choice (van der Brug and Mughan 2007), we investigate the different demands from followers and how does it shape the perception of leaders? What is the role of followers in populist politics? Why populist followers are seemingly attracted more to charisma and overestimate the influence of political leadership? How does this charismatic relationship emerge? Addressing the research gap, this study seeks to answer these questions by empirical survey research (N=441) conducted in Hungary. The results of this article shed light on how voters with populist attitudes independently of their ideological standings tend to overestimate the role of leadership in politics and attribute charisma differently.