Who Holds Populist Attitudes? Evidence from Switzerland

So far, populism has mainly been studied by looking at the political supply side. This contribution focuses on the political demand side by explaining citizens' levels of support for populist attitudes. We formulate two competing hypotheses. The first hypothesis expects populist attitudes to be most pervasive on the ideological extremes, while the second one posits that individuals are more likely to hold these attitudes the more to the right of the political spectrum they position themselves. Our empirical analysis of a representative survey of the Swiss Electoral Study (SELECTS) supports the second hypothesis. We argue that this right-sided orientation among Swiss citizens can be attributed to context characteristics that are currently available in the northern part of Western Europe (i.e. the absence of a long-lasting economic crisis, the high saliency of identity politics, and a strong populist mobilization by the radical right).