The impact of corona populism: Empirical evidence from Austria and theory.

ABSTRACT: I study the co-evolution between public opinion and party policy in situations of crises by investigating a policy U-turn of a major Austrian right-wing party (FPÖ) during the Covid-19 pandemic. My analysis suggests the existence of both i) a "Downsian" effect, which causes voters to adapt their party preferences based on policy congruence and ii) a "party identification" effect, which causes partisans to realign their policy preferences based on "their" party's platform. Specifically, I use individual-level panel data to show that i) "corona skeptical" voters who did not vote for the FPÖ in the pre-Covid-19 elections of 2019 were more likely to vote for the party after it embraced "corona populism", and ii) beliefs of respondents who declared that they voted for the FPÖ in 2019 diverged f

SUBMITTER: Mellacher P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10017277 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature