Populist voters and direct democracy. The silent majority in search of a voice?

Are populist voters more in favour of direct democracy than other voters? This is the main question that will be tackled in our paper. While populist leaders claim that they will restore the voice of the ‘silent majority’ by means of referenda, little is known about whether these voters actually want more participation. In fact, Mudde (2004) claimed that populist voters typically want strong leadership and less involvement into politics. Perhaps country characteristics might be intervening variables here. Support for referendums among populist voters can be particularly expected in democracies where populist parties have been systematically ostracized. In these countries, direct democracy might be the last possibility left to ensure that the wishes of ‘the people’ are reflected in governmental policies. If populist parties have themselves the possibility to rise to power, however, direct democracy can be expected to be less of an issue. Our hypotheses will be answered by exploring the ISSP 2004 dataset and the PARTIREP 2009 survey (Belgium) which both include questions on support for direct democracy.status: publishe