Quantitative Measures of Populism: A Survey

Abstract

In the past decade, debates over the definition of populism have coalesced into a minimal working definition. Qualitative studies seeking to define parties as dichotomously populist or not have minimal use in a comparative context. While studies were able to examine the conditions under which “populist” parties were successful, what defined “populist” was left to country and topic experts. Operationalizing these definitions of populism allows for empirical measurement, quantitative scaling, and ultimately cross-national and diachronic comparisons. Scales have been developed to measure how much populism is present in a party, among their representatives, in the public, and captured in political discourse. Such objective measures allow for confirmation or refutation of the presence of populism and the shedding of normative biases associated with this analytical term. This research note captures the current breadth of research using quantitative measures.