Alternative Medicine and Voting – Can Populists Attract Esoteric Believers?

Several European countries have sought to remove “alternative medicines” from national insurance schemes. In parallel, populist parties have increasingly voiced support for continued coverage of such treatments. This dynamic resonates with research on how medical beliefs shape political behavior and partisanship (e.g., Gidengil & Wass, 2023; Huijts et al., 2010; Pacheco, 2019). Yet, studies on whether and how populist parties cater to proponents of alternative medicine remain scarce. Based on this, I ask: How have European populists engaged supporters of alternative medicine, and has this increased their vote share? Prior work shows that voting behavior correlates with health status (e.g., McGuire et al., 2021; Dorling et al., 2001), with evidence that voters in ill health are drawn to radical or populist parties (e.g., Bernardi & Johns, 2021). Supporters of such parties often espouse anti-scientific or conspiratorial views that align with populist rhetoric framing a conflict between corrupt “elites” and the virtuous “people” (e.g., Allcott et al., 2020; Merkley & Loewen, 2021). The empirical analysis utilizes a three-pronged approach: (1) a descriptive manifesto analysis of European populist parties; (2) individual-level analysis using the 2023/24 European Social Survey with an instrumental variable design; and (3) a DiD at the country level, exploits recent policy changes on alternative medicine coverage to track changes in voting intentions on a weekly basis.