How do (populist) parties conceptualise the people and elite?

Populism focuses on the moral clash between the ‘honest and upright people’ and the ‘evil and corrupt elite.’ Both groups are considered empty signifiers, which allows populists to consider all kinds of groups as elites or part of the people. But what explains how inclusive or exclusive the conceptions of these two core groups are? Why do some parties select the people in cultural terms, whereas others also exclude bankers or the rich? In order to investigate these questions, we collected new expert survey data on political parties in 30 European countries as part of the second wave of the Populism and Political Parties Expert Survey (POPPA). The newly designed module allows us to understand how parties define ‘the people’ and ‘elites’. This investigation has important implications for our understanding of populist parties, what the nature of their populist appeal is, and how they seek to mobilise in the political arena.