How congruent are populist parties with their constituencies? Evidence from the 2019 European Parliament Elections in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden

IF 2.3 2区社会学 Q1 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Electoral Studies Pub Date : 2025-02-04 DOI:10.1016/j.electstud.2025.102906

Andrei Zhirnov , Jan Philipp Thomeczek , Michele Scotto Di Vettimo , Alberto López Ortega , André Krouwel , Lorenza Antonucci , Roberta Di Stefano , Norbert Kersting

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The rise of populism in Europe has often been described as a response to representation deficits. Arguably, populist parties (1) contribute to the representation of underrepresented constituencies by taking stances that non-populist parties are too constrained to advocate and (2) make a promise of extreme responsiveness to those frustrated with the lack of representation. In this research note, we investigate whether populist parties are indeed closer to their voters in the policy space than non-populist parties and are more congruent with their constituencies than the other parties are with theirs. Using data from Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, we find that populist parties are indeed often the best policy option for their voters, but the correspondence between their positions and those of their constituencies is on average as good or bad as that between other parties and their voters.

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民粹主义政党与其选民的一致性如何？来自意大利、荷兰、德国和瑞典2019年欧洲议会选举的证据

欧洲民粹主义的兴起经常被描述为对代表性不足的回应。可以说，民粹主义政党(1)通过采取非民粹主义政党过于受限而无法倡导的立场，为代表性不足的选区做出了贡献；(2)承诺对那些因缺乏代表性而感到沮丧的人做出极端回应。在这份研究报告中，我们调查了民粹主义政党是否确实比非民粹主义政党更接近他们的选民，并且比其他政党更符合他们的选民。利用意大利、德国、荷兰和瑞典的数据，我们发现，民粹主义政党确实经常是选民的最佳政策选择，但他们的立场与选民的立场之间的对应关系，平均而言与其他政党与其选民之间的对应关系一样好或坏。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Electoral Studies POLITICAL SCIENCE-

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

13.00%

发文量

审稿时长

67 days

期刊介绍： Electoral Studies is an international journal covering all aspects of voting, the central act in the democratic process. Political scientists, economists, sociologists, game theorists, geographers, contemporary historians and lawyers have common, and overlapping, interests in what causes voters to act as they do, and the consequences. Electoral Studies provides a forum for these diverse approaches. It publishes fully refereed papers, both theoretical and empirical, on such topics as relationships between votes and seats, and between election outcomes and politicians reactions; historical, sociological, or geographical correlates of voting behaviour; rational choice analysis of political acts, and critiques of such analyses.