Proponents of Populism: Cohort Effects on Populist Attitudes in East Asia

• In Event: Public Opinion and Policy Formation in Taiwan

Abstract

Is populism in East Asia an extension of partisan competition? While research on populism has predominantly focused on the European context in efforts to explain political outcomes, cases in East Asia may suggest populism is inherently different from the European context. Specifically, recent populism research has suggested the effects of populism on political outcomes may vary between younger and older voters in Taiwan and Hong Kong. If cohort differences exist among voters, then understanding what factors yield differences in populism among East Asian voters is crucial to understanding the fundamental differences between European populism and East Asian populism. Given there has been an increasing propensity to protest across East Asia, which is often considered a significant indicator of dissatisfaction with incumbent regimes and ultimately harder to achieve in East Asian contexts relative to Western contexts, we attempt to examine whether potential cohort differences among voters’ propensity to protest in Taiwan and South Korea impact populism. We argue that younger voters have significantly different perceptions of government than older voters, which makes younger voters more likely to adopt populist attitudes than traditional partisan effects. We test our hypotheses using logistic regression analyses on Wave 4 and Wave 5 of the Asian Barometer Survey. Our findings suggest there are variations in contextualizing populism in East Asia among younger and older voters.

Authors

• Lewis Alexander Luartz, Chapman University

• YI-PING LIN, Freie Universität Berlin

• Matthew Yi-Hsiu Lee, National Taiwan University