Thin but visible: the role of populist attitudes and their subdimensions in populist support within the 2021 Czech legislative election

Abstract

Are populist attitudes too thin to matter for populist support? Considering their interplay with thick nativist attitudes, we argue that both populist attitudes and their subdimensions play a key role in the propensity to vote for each of the main populist parties within the 2021 Czech legislative election. The results from our survey (N = 2009) show that populist attitudes and their subdimensions are notable predictors whose role is not fully conditioned by thick nativist attitudes. Furthermore, the unique effects of subdimensions tend to reflect the emphasis that populist parties place on the corresponding components of populist ideology in their communication.