UC Davis

This dissertation consists of three chapters analyzing the consequences of populism in Europe. The first two chapters use Difference-in-Differences designs to study how populist parties in government affect liberal democracy. In the first chapter, I show that populist entry into government reduces liberal democracy scores—an effect driven entirely by right-wing populist parties. The second chapter disaggregates these effects, finding that right-wing populists in government specifically erode civil liberties and freedom of expression. Together, these two chapters establish that government status and host-ideology are important moderators of populism’s democratic consequences. In the third chapter, my co-authors and I examine elite-level party conflict and cooperation in the European Union. We show that growing support for populist and Eurosceptic parties has generated a new transnational cleavage that challenges European integration. Our findings show that elite-level, cross-national party conflict and cooperation is related to parties’ differing orientations towards European integration and populism, as well as their governing status. This dissertation demonstrates that populism can impact elite-level party competition and subsequently be linked to the erosion of democratic institutions. Together, this research offers new insights into the challenges facing democracy in Europe, contributing to the growing literature on how the emergence of populism has reshaped European politics, the strategic incentives that shape elite behavior, and the consequences these choices have for citizens and democratic institutions.