Conspirational populism and the Covid-19 pandemic: An empirical analysis of voting motives in two Swiss referendums

The Covid-19 pandemic has represented one the most crucial challenge for Western established democracies since the end of World War II. Populist grievances and conspiracy theories arose during this crisis, for instance on the origin of the virus, the vaccines and the role of government. While the key theoretical question is to understand the combination of populism and conspiracy narratives, the challenge from an empirical point of view is how this combination drives voting decisions. To highlight these two related questions, this contribution addresses two referendums on the Swiss Covid-19 Act held in 2021. To what extent do individual voting motives on the opponents’ side reflect conspiracy narratives and populist claims? The analysis is based on two representative post-vote surveys.