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Partisans like any other? How populist supporters assess the economy when their party is in office

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2023

Frédéric Gonthier Open the ORCID record for Frédéric Gonthier [Opens in a new window]
Frédéric Gonthier*
Affiliation:
Sciences Po Grenoble, School of Political Studies, University of Grenoble Alpes, Pacte-CNRS, France
*
Email: frederic.gonthier@iepg.fr
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Abstract

Populist supporters have been found to take cues from populist incumbents. Yet, little is known about how they incorporate party cues in their political beliefs when populists are in office. This research note argues that (1) citizens who identify with populist parties engage in partisan motivated reasoning – that is, they are driven by the desire to be consistent with their partisan allegiances – and that (2) they engage in partisan motivated reasoning more intensely than their non-populist counterparts because populist party cues strongly prompt them to process biased information. Drawing on data from the European Social Survey, it is evidenced that populist supporters express much warmer economic views when their parties hold power. Warm economic views are also found to increase significantly more in accordance with strength of partisanship and exposure to political information for populist supporters than for non-populist supporters when their respective parties govern. Results highlight a mechanism by which populist incumbents are likely to remain attractive despite their poor economic record. They have implications for our understanding of the mainstreaming of populist parties in Europe.

Keywords

populist partiesparty identificationpartisan motivated reasoningeconomic assessmentsEuropean Social Survey
Type
Research Note
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , November 2023 , pp. 659 - 670
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Consortium for Political Research

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