Do populist parties support referendums? A comparative analysis of election manifestos in Europe

Gherghina, S. and Pilet, J.-B. (2021) Do populist parties support referendums? A comparative analysis of election manifestos in Europe. Electoral Studies, 74, 102419. (doi: 10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102419)

Abstract

Earlier research refers to populist parties as being advocates of a greater use of referendum. Yet, there has been no large-scale systematic test of this claim. This article addresses this gap in the literature and tests the relationship between populism and greater use for referendums in party manifestos. It analyzes 824 manifestos of 187 populist and non-populist parties in 27 Member States of the European Union between 1994 and 2018. We test if populist parties are virtually all in favor of a greater use of referendums and whether they would talk about referendums much more than non-populist parties.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gherghina, Dr Sergiu
• Authors: Gherghina, S., and Pilet, J.-B.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: Electoral Studies
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0261-3794
• ISSN (Online): 1873-6890
• Published Online: 09 November 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd.
• First Published: First published in Electoral Studies 74: 102419
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy