UC Irvine

Populist political parties and candidates worldwide are attracting an ever-growing share of popular support. This dissertation seeks to enhance our understanding of the values and beliefs that drive ordinary citizens to back left-wing and right-wing populists by investigating the role of political authoritarianism and anti-democratic views. Some scholars propose that populist ideology inherently contains divisive and intolerant tenets that conflict with principles necessary to maintaining liberal democracy. Focusing on three separate political contexts, Western Europe, the United States, and Latin America, I find that political authoritarianism can be associated with support for populists depending on the ideology of the populist in question. Citizens that support right-wing populists consistently display disproportionately high levels of political authoritarianism and disregard for democratic norms, while the left-wing populist support base does not. The findings ultimately challenge monolithic portrayals of populism as anti-democratic.