Related publications

“Measuring Populism Worldwide”

Party Politics 26(6): 696-717. doi.org/10.1177/1354068820927686

Synopsis: Populism studies have rapidly burgeoned but nevertheless systematic cross-national evidence about this phenomenon has lagged far behind. How can populism be measured in ways which are consistent, valid, and reliable? To address this issue, Part I outlines the minimalist concept of populism used in the study. Part II summarizes the pros and cons of previous attempts at gauging and classifying party ideological values and issue positions in general, as well as recent studies seeking to classify populists as a distinct party family.  Part III describes the research design employed to construct the Global Party Survey, replicating the methods of previous expert surveys but expanding coverage worldwide and including innovative measures of populist rhetoric. The new dataset, drawing upon estimates from 1,861 experts, covers 1,043 political parties in 163 countries around the globe (see www.GlobalPartySurvey.org). Part IV presents key results and a series of robustness tests confirming that the new estimates of ideological values and populist parties are consistently correlated with previous measures. The conclusion in Part V summarizes the results and considers the potential uses of the dataset for understanding populism as a global phenomenon.  

Pippa Norris

20 April 2020

Cultural Backlash

Authoritarian populist parties have advanced in many countries, and entered government in states as diverse as Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland. Even small parties can still shift the policy agenda, as demonstrated by UKIP’s role in catalyzing Brexit. Drawing on new evidence, the book advances a general theory why the silent revolution in values triggered a backlash fuelling support for Authoritarian-Populist parties and leaders in the U.S. and Europe. The conclusion highlights the dangers of this development and what could be done to mitigate the risks to liberal democracy.

Review

'Cultural Backlash is a foundational piece in the burgeoning field of studies related to the revival of authoritarianism and the rise of populism in the twenty-first century. But it is also much more than that. It is not only a book that explains the reasons why some parties and candidates have been more successful than others, or about the potential causes and effects of the erosion to liberal democracy. It is also an unprecedented roadmap to understand the new political and social fault lines that will likely mark political representation patterns for years to come. The book is a landmark in the study of social psychology and voter choice.' Kenneth Bunker, Democratization

ISBN-13: 978-1108444422 Order $21.09 direct from Amazon.