CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Stefanelli, Alberto |
|---|---|
| Title | The "Irrationality" of Populist Voters. Testing Spatial Models of Electoral Competition Using Populist Attitudes |
| Summary | Valence and policy positions matter in voting behaviour, but is this true for every voter? Specifically, are populist voters different from non-populist when it comes to vote choice and candidate favourability? Since I understand populism as a latent attitude that structures the comprehension of the socio-political word, I claim that populist individuals do not follow the “rational” utility criteria postulated by traditional models of voting behaviour. Firstly, I expect that (H1) populist individuals attach less importance to candidates' policy positions. This proposition is consistent with the antagonistic and dualistic nature of populism that allows individuals to fit most of their policy-oriented attitudes within a populist narrative framework independently from their ideological orientation. Secondly, since I believe that policy and valence are non-separable components, I expect that (H2) populists attach less importance to the competence of the candidate (task-related valence). Lastly, against the “evil elites”, elected representatives must be “honest”, “sincere”, and respect the “will of the people”. Because of this, I postulate that (H3) individuals with high affinity with populism attach more importance to how honest or “warm” the candidate is (non-task valence). These hypotheses are tested using 2016 American and 2017 French National Electoral Studies data. Results confirm that individuals who score high on populist attitudinal scale attach less importance to ideological proximity and competence and more to honesty when it comes to vote choice contradicting the “rationality” criteria of traditional proximity and valence models. The fact that populist individuals cannot be seen as mere revenue-maximising agents calls for further research on the psychological mechanisms behind the activation of populist attitudes and their impact on political competition. |
| Supervisor | Gabor Toka |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/stefanelli_alberto.pdf |
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