Supply and Demand of Populism: A Quantitative Text Analysis of Cantonal SVP Manifestos

Abstract

This article studies the heterogeneity of cantonal SVP branches in terms of populism and relates it to individual populist attitudes around the 2015 National Council elections. Quantitative text analysis of party manifestos delivers measures of populism for 24 cantonal branches of the SVP. These estimates are related to individual-level 2015 Selects survey data. The results indicate that there is still a variety of populism between the different cantonal branches of the SVP, even after the split into two parties (BDP and SVP). Evidence for general correspondence between contextual populism (supply side) and individual-level populist attitudes (demand side) is limited, but some patterns related to the existence of the BDP emerge.