Do Populists in Power or the Economy Impact Civic Culture?

Abstract

This paper empirically tests whether populists in power or economic wellbeing influence civil society and civic culture. It conceptualizes civic culture broadly by focusing on citizen mobilization and evaluation of both national and supranational political institutions. The longer populists hold government positions, the stronger their control over civil society organizations, affecting participation in civil society initiatives. However, a higher GDP per capita is associated with increased participation in civic society initiatives. Both the duration of populist rule and economic factors shape civic culture across Central and Eastern Europe. On the country level, the length of governance under populist elites correlates with a decrease in individual social connectedness, growing dissatisfaction with democracy, and diminished interest in politics. Country-level economic development correlates with higher levels of institutional trust, social trust, social connectedness, and satisfaction with democracy but negatively with trust in the European Union, election turnout, interest in politics, and participation in trade unions. Higher levels of civic culture are most consistently driven by one’s income at individual level. Citizens appear to be evolving into allegiant citizens—those who maintain some level of trust in governmental institutions also support the principles and practices of democracy and exhibit a general increase in apathy toward politics. Evidence from the European Social Survey and the V-Dem database supports these conclusions.