Browsing by Author "Van Hauwaert, Steven M."

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    How citizens’ conceptions of democracy relate to positive and negative partisanship towards populist parties
    (Routledge, 2023) Wegscheider, Carsten; Rovira Kaltwasser, Cristóbal; Van Hauwaert, Steven M.
    Although scholars emphasise the contentious relationship of populist forces to (liberal) democracy, less attention has been paid to whether this extends to those who support or oppose populist parties. This article utilises a public opinion dataset from ten Western European countries to analyse how citizens’ conceptions of democracy relate to the behavioural intention to vote for or against populist parties. The empirical analysis shows that positive and negative identification with populist parties is driven by different understandings of democracy: While individuals who are less inclined to liberal democracy but more to direct democracy and authoritarian forms of rule are more likely to sympathise with populist parties, the opposite understanding of democracy predicts opposition to both left-wing and right-wing populists. These findings demonstrate that citizens with positive and negative partisanship towards populist parties are divided in their interpretations about both the conceptual meaning and the normative functioning of democracy.
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    The Ideational Approach to Populism: Concept, Theory and Method
    (Routledge, 2019) Hawkins, Kirk A.; Rovira Kaltwasser, Cristóbal; Castanho Silva, Bruno; March, Luke; Grbeša, Marijana; Šalaj, Berto; Wiesehomeier, Nina; Andreadis, Ioannis; Ruth, Saskia P.; Van Hauwaert, Steven M.; Schimpf, Christian H.; Azevedo, Flavio; Anduiza, Eva; Blanuša, Nebojša; Morlet Corti, Yazmin; Delfino, Gisela; Rico, Guillem; Spruyt, Bram; Steenbergen, Marco; Littvay, Levente; Hawkins, Kirk A.; Carlin, Ryan E.; Littvay, Levente; Rovira Kaltwasser, Cristóbal
    Populism is on the rise in Europe and the Americas. Scholars increasingly understand populist forces in terms of their ideas or discourse, one that envisions a cosmic struggle between the will of the common people and a conspiring elite. In this volume, we advance populism scholarship by proposing a causal theory and methodological guidelines – a research program – based on this ideational approach. This program argues that populism exists as a set of widespread attitudes among ordinary citizens, and that these attitudes lie dormant until activated by weak democratic governance and policy failure. It offers methodological guidelines for scholars seeking to measure populist ideas and test their effects. And, to ground the program empirically, it tests this theory at multiple levels of analysis using original data on populist discourse across European and US party systems; case studies of populist forces in Europe, Latin America, and the US; survey data from Europe and Latin America; and experiments in Chile, the US, and the UK. The result is a truly systematic, comparative approach that helps answer questions about the causes and effects of populism.