How party polarisation exacerbates the link between democratic deficit and populist voting

Abstract

Populist parties are known to champion popular sovereignty, often leading to intensified polarisation within party systems. Simultaneously, the populist model of democracy is garnering significant support among Europeans. Yet, our understanding of how party polarisation over popular sovereignty influences populist voting remains limited, and the underlying mechanism by which citizens assess the populist model of democracy has been scarcely explored. Leveraging data from expert and opinion surveys, this article argues that highly polarised contexts heighten the perception that the populist model of democracy is underachieved, resulting in greater populist radical-right voting. Whereas support for populist radical-right parties is usually pictured as an emotional response to economic and cultural insecurities, normative evaluations of democracy are a route to populist voting. That said, they play to the hilt when activated by a high level of party polarisation over popular sovereignty.