Are Populists Politically Intolerant? Citizens’ Populist Attitudes and Tolerance of Various Political Antagonists

Linda Bos,Joost Van Spanje,Lisanne Wichgers

doi:10.1177/00323217211049299

Linda Bos, Joost Van Spanje + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217211049299

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Abstract

Political tolerance—the willingness to extend civil rights to political antagonists—is a key democratic norm. We argue that because voters with populist attitudes have an ambiguous relationship with democracy and keep a narrow definition of the people, they are more likely to be politically intolerant. We study the Netherlands, a less likely case to find political intolerance. Using data from a representative household panel survey ( n = 1999), we investigate the extent to which populist attitudes translate into general intolerant attitudes and specific intolerance toward political antagonists. Our analyses show that voters with stronger populist attitudes are less supportive of democratic norms, more intolerant of opposing views online, and of specific political opponents. However, they are not explicitly intolerant by limiting individual civil rights or supporting intolerant measures toward political antagonists. These findings show that even in a system engrained with compromise, populist citizens show signs of political intolerance.

Highlights

Political tolerance—the willingness to extend civil rights to political antagonists—is a key democratic norm
Citizens with populist attitudes arguably have an ambiguous relation with key democratic norms and values
In this article, we focus on two explanations that are closely related to populism: first of all, research has shown that a strong commitment to democratic norms enhances tolerance of the antagonist, while intolerance grows when others are perceived as threatening to society or democracy (Crawford, 2014; Gibson, 2006; Hurwitz and Mondak, 2002; Sullivan and Transue, 1999)

Summary

Introduction

Political tolerance—the willingness to extend civil rights to political antagonists—is a key democratic norm. Our analyses show that voters with stronger populist attitudes are less supportive of democratic norms, more intolerant of opposing views online, and of specific political opponents. They are not explicitly intolerant by limiting individual civil rights or supporting intolerant measures toward political antagonists. Political tolerance has mainly been studied in the United States (Stouffer, 1955; Sullivan et al, 1982), a context typified by extreme majoritarianism This system is dominated by just two political parties that hardly need one another to deliver their political promises to voters. One would not expect much tolerance—neither from populists nor from other citizens

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