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Big ideas, little detail: how populist parties talk about referendums in Europe
By Jean-Benoit Pilet with Sergiu Gherghina and Bettina Mitru
ABSTRACT
The idea of increasing the power of the ‘pure people’ at the expense of a ‘corrupt elite’ lies at the core of populism. One way for populist parties to do this is to push for a greater use of referendums. Previous research shows that populist parties mention in general in their communications the referendums as suitable avenues for the direct involvement of the people in the decision-making process. However, we miss details about how they refer to referendums. This article addresses this gap in the literature and explores how populist parties talk about referendums in their election manifestos. It seeks to identify what type of referendum populist parties tend to support, and to analyze whether their support for referendums is generic or policy-specific. Our qualitative content analysis draws on the election manifestos used by 38 populist parties in 21 European democracies in national elections taking place between 2016 and 2023.