Personal Values Priorities and Support for Populism in Europe—An Analysis of Personal Motivations Underpinning Support for Populist Parties in Europe

Abstract

Several studies have shown that there are populist attitudes associated with voting for these parties, across left- and right-wing ideologies. As political attitudes and opinions are rooted in people’s personal values, this study analyzes the commonalities in the values priorities of populist supporters. The values underlying the vote for populists are reflected in the ideological core of populism, the antagonistic divide between “us”—the people—and “them”—the foreigners and the elite. This article theorizes that voting for populist parties is linked with lower support for self-transcendent values, as they express altruism, tolerance, and pluralism, contradicting the populist claims of exclusionist power of the “people” over “the others.” Evidence of this relationship is found using European Social Survey data. The study applies logistic multilevel and multinomial regression models. Findings confirm that voting for populist parties is associated with lower support for self-transcendent values and high support in conservation values, across left and right ideologies.