Same Problems, Different Solutions. Stealth Democracy and the Vote for a Populist Party

In this paper, we argue that previous studies on the determinants of voting for a populist party did not take into account heterogeneity in the group of citizens who have populist attitudes. More specifically, we argue that citizens with stealth democracy attitudes identify with the populist message highlighting the problems of contemporary liberal democracy, but that they are not attracted by the populist parties’ solution to these problems. Therefore, while they feel appealed by the populist message emphasising the flaws of politics nowadays, voters with high stealth democracy attitudes will not vote for a populist party. Analyses using the data of the Finnish Election Studies provide support for our hypotheses. These results bear strong consequences for the way in which populist attitudes are being conceived and measured.status: publishe