Populism and social capital in structurally disadvantaged regions and the 2023 Czech presidential election: making democracy work again?

The 2023 presidential runoff election in the Czech Republic showed that populist candidate Andrej Babi enjoyed support in regions designated as structurally disadvantaged. These regions are affected by multiple problems, particularly in the social, economic, and educational spheres. The present study uses qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to determine the reasons for populist support in these regions and whether all of them show similar combinations of conditions. In particular, the study works with conditions related to social capital and phenomena such as civil society. We find that the victory of Andrej Babi occurred in regions exhibiting identical combinations of conditions (problems) facilitating support for populist candidates.