Cross-Party Conflict and Diffusion of Populist Support in Europe

• In Event: Political Parties and American Democracy Mini-Conference I: New Approaches to Political Polarization in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

How does publicly attacking or being attacked by populist parties affect mainstream and populist parties’ popular support? Past work finds that cross-party, elite-level, interactions involving populist parties are significantly more conflictual than interactions between mainstream parties. Using data from the Integrated Crisis Early Warning System, we analyze media reports of cross-party, elite-level, interactions in fourteen European party systems between 2001 and 2019. We hypothesize that mainstream party attacks against populist parties actually boost populist parties’ subsequent popular support, but do not meaningfully affect support for the mainstream attacking parties. Reciprocally, we expect populist party attacks on mainstream parties to increase populists’ subsequent support, while depressing support for the mainstream targets of the attack.

Authors

• James Adams, University of California, Davis

• Josephine T. Andrews, University of California, Davis

• Braeden Davis

• Alexa Federice, University of California, Davis