Voices unheard: How feelings of inefficacy fuel populism

Abstract

How do populist voters differ from other voters and among themselves? I argue that the commonality of populist voters is a perceived sense of political inefficacy. The feelings of inefficacy interact with grievances, which determine the party choice. Using the European Social Survey data, I show that when grievances are cultural, voters are more likely to vote for a right-wing populist party. In the same manner, economic grievances make left-wing populist voting more likely. Furthermore, I show that negative effect of political efficacy on populist voting declines as grievances become more severe. Thus, while grievances determine the type of populism, political efficacy determines the vote choice between populist parties and their alternatives.