Dissatisfied But Still Democratic: How Populist Citizens Understand Democracy

Abstract

Populist leaders often describe democracy as being in conflict with liberal values and endorse more direct democratic measures for people to influence politics. But what about populist citizens? How do they define democracy and what aspects of democracy do they value most? Using a cross-national survey of 10 West European countries, we first explore how citizens understand democracy in general and then test the assumption that populist citizens share a different understanding of democracy to both populist elites and less-populist individuals. Our findings show that citizens’ conceptions of democracy do not exactly match scholarly models, but are still clearly structured. We also find that populist citizens tend to support direct democracy and are less supportive of liberal principles, primarily because they are less likely to support the protection of minorities. They remain, however, equally supportive of other institutions of electoral and liberal democracy. Similarly, our results show that populist individuals are not especially more or less supportive of egalitarian and authoritarian understandings of democracy. That said, they are more comfortable with the idea of having strong leaders than their less populist counterparts. These results have important implications for democratic resilience. Policy-makers aiming to strengthen liberal democracy must address citizens’ concerns about representation without compromising core democratic safeguards. Understanding these tensions can help guide more inclusive democratic reforms and better communication between political institutions and the public.