Här är intressant ny forskning om vad som förklarar populism (paneldata i Europa 1980-2016). Huvudresultatet ur abstract:
We find that large vote shares of right-wing – but not left-wing – authoritarian populists are associated closely to corruption. Other commonly cited explanations such as unemployment, inequality and immigration perform poorly in predicting support for populist political platforms on the political right.
Författarna spekulerar lite om mekanismerna:
While a full theoretical explanation of the link between corruption and right-wing populism remains beyond the scope of this article, we suggest that the mechanism involves political trust. Corruption weakens trust in political institutions, which populists exploit. Curbing the rise of right-wing authoritarian populism in Europe will thus require restoring trust in the integrity of politics.
Källa:
Rohac, D., Kumar, S., and Johansson Heinö, A. (2017) The wisdom of demagogues: institutions, corruption and support for authoritarian populists. Economic Affairs, 37: 382–396. doi: 10.1111/ecaf.12264.