Producerist populist attitudes and electoral support for populism in the USA and Western Europe

Abstract

This article aims to clarify the importance of producerism as a socio-economic dimension of contemporary populism. Building on the existing literature about the supply of producerism by populist politicians, we adopt a demand-side perspective to investigate whether producerism consistently manifests among the general public and how it may affect populist voting. We draw on an original set of items and a cross-national survey conducted in Western Europe and the USA to identify clusters of citizens with distinct left-wing and right-wing producerist attitudes. Our findings show that such attitudes are no longer exclusive to American politics but also found in Western Europe, albeit with country-specific modifications. Moreover, producerist citizens show distinct socio-cultural and economic attitudes and are more likely to support populist parties and candidates, particularly on the right side of the political spectrum.