Academic Major: Political Science
Advisor: Robert Hinckley& Michael Popovic
Title: Social Cohesion, Threat, and the People: What Triggers Authoritarian Populist Attitudes
In liberal democracies worldwide, an increasing percentage of those with socially conservative attitudes are supporting politicians disseminating populist rhetoric and authoritarian values. In the book Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism, Norris and Inglehart argue that grievances pertaining to economic issues, such as globalization, often reiterate a perception of societal changes as threatening amongst the socially conservative. These grievances motivate them to support authoritarian populist politicians who appeal to their economic concerns (18). To what extent do economic grievances motivate socially conservative populations to support authoritarian populist parties and politicians in liberal democracies globally? Where do economic grievances rank amongst the variables that contribute to their support for these parties and politicians? The intention of this project is to measure the extent to which economic grievances influence social conservatives’ support for authoritarian populist parties and politicians. To achieve these intentions, the project will conduct a comparative analysis. This project will compare individual countries around the world that are experiencing a surge in authoritarian populist sentiment using data from various sources, such as the World Values Survey, to reveal the similarities and differences between them. These similarities and differences identify relevant variables that may contribute to socially conservative populations’ increasing support of authoritarian populists. The project will compare the presence and magnitude of several variables, including economic grievances, among several different cases. This project builds upon the work of sociologists and political scientists such as Seymour Lipset, Daniel Bell, Pippa Norris, and Ronald Inglehart. It expands on their research on topics such as modernization, democratization, authoritarianism, and populism. Specifically, the premise of this project is rooted in Seymour Lipset’s economic theory of democratic development and Ronald Inglehart’s generational replacement theory (134).