The rise of populism in post-democratic times: evidence from Democracy Indices

Abstract

This thesis aims at the expansion of empirical knowledge related to the understanding of crises of political representation and post-democracy as the main factors behind the current rise of populism in Europe. In the literature, scholars have mainly focused their attention on theoretical developments and country case studies. On the other hand, this research, by benefiting from the recent production of large datasets that measure populism at the party-level, implements a series of correlation and linear regression analyses using this data and information from two Democracy Indices: Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem) and Democracy Perception Index. All in all, although important regional differences were found, the results show evidence related to the understanding of populism as a consequence of crises of political representation linked to democratic deficit. In relation to post-democracy, less relevant results could be produced due to the unavailability of data in V-Dem. In this regard, this research also examines its dataset and effectuates a critical assessment of its conceptualization of democracy. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the causes behind the rise of populism and the measurement of democracy. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)