‘We Want our Country Back’. Exploring the demand-side of Economic Populist Sovereignism in France and Switzerland

International audienceSovereignism is at the crux of the current wave of radical right-wing populism (RRP). Populist parties and leaders advocate ‘taking back control’ at the national level, and they generally do so in the name of the ‘people’. Building on previous work, we focus on economic issues and explore the interconnection between populism and sovereignism in voter attitudes in Western Europe. Using an original data set from a survey among ordinary citizens of two countries, France and Switzerland, we address the voters’ attitudes of relevant RRP, that is the Rassemblement national (RN, formerly Front National) and the Swiss People’s party (SVP). Our results show that economic populist sovereignism represents a specific attitudinal dimension among Swiss and French voters, and that it is a significant factor of electoral support for the RN and the SVP, along with other important correlates of RRP voting such as welfare-chauvinism. We also find that economic populism sovereignism does simply not reflect attitudes towards economic globalization