Populist attitudes : Bringing together ideational and communicative approaches

Journal article


Kefford, Glenn, Moffitt, Benjamin and Werner, Annika. (2022). Populist attitudes : Bringing together ideational and communicative approaches. Political Studies. 70(4), pp. 1006-1027. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321721997741
AuthorsKefford, Glenn, Moffitt, Benjamin and Werner, Annika
Abstract

The study of populist attitudes has thus far drawn heavily on ideational definitions of populism, focussing almost exclusively on attitudes related to dimensions such as people-centredness and anti-elitism. However, these accounts have largely ignored other approaches to populism, especially the discursive-performative school which see populism as something that is communicated and done by political actors. We argue that when studying populist attitudes, these approaches are not mutually exclusive. In this article, we develop a novel measure of attitudes towards populist communication and consider how these interact with populist ideational attitudes. Testing our measures on the Australian case, we demonstrate that attitudes towards populist communication exist independently of populist ideational attitudes, and that they have a significant effect on voting behaviour and on attitudes related to the ideational approach. Therefore, we argue that studies of populist attitudes need to take attitudes towards populist communication into account in future work.

Keywordspopulism; political attitudes; voting behaviour; political communication; Australia
Year2022
JournalPolitical Studies
Journal citation70 (4), pp. 1006-1027
PublisherSAGE Publications
ISSN0032-3217
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321721997741
Scopus EID2-s2.0-85103163751
Page range1006-1027
FunderAustralian Research Council (ARC)
Publisher's version
License
All rights reserved
File Access Level
Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online24 Mar 2021
Publication process dates
Accepted03 Feb 2021
Deposited12 Jul 2021
ARC Funded ResearchThis output has been funded, wholly or partially, under the Australian Research Council Act 2001
Grant IDDE190100210
DE190101127
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