Populism

Demography

Inequality

Statistics

Social psychology

European Social Survey

Socioeconomic status

Acoustics

Turnout

Physics

Identity (music)

Psychology

Mathematics

Politics

Survey data collection

Political science

Population

Political economy

Sociology

Mathematical analysis

Voter turnout

Voting

European Political Science Review

This article analyses the relationship between populist attitudes and political participation. We argue that populist attitudes can be a motivation for participation through their identity, emotional, and moral components, and that they have the potential to narrow socioeconomic gaps in participation. Using survey data from nine European countries, our results show that populist attitudes are positively related to expressive non-institutionalized modes of participation (petition signing, online participation and, in some contexts, demonstrating), but not to turnout. In addition, populist attitudes are found to reduce education-based gaps and even reverse income-based inequalities in political participation. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Populism, participation, and political equality