The electoral strategies of a populist candidate

Does charisma discourage experience and encourage extremism

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6299306
AutoresGilles Serra (Department of Political Science, Centre for Economics Research and Teaching (CIDE), Mexico, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume30
Fascículo1
Páginas45-73
Data de publicação2018-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Theoretical Politics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0951-6298 • E-ISSN: 1460-3667
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0951629817737860
OpenAlexW2769049693
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas38

I model an election between a populist candidate with little government experience and high charisma and a mainstream candidate with much government experience and low charisma. Taking a step back in time, I also model the career choices of this populist candidate: he must consider how much governing experience to acquire before running for high office, and then he must decide how extremist his campaign platform should be. The model finds two major trade-offs that are unfortunate for the median voter: candidates who are attractive in terms of their high charisma will be unattractive in terms of their low experience and high extremism. The model also finds that popular discontent, coming from an economic or political crisis, makes an inexperienced outsider more likely to win an election with an extremist agenda; this helps explain the recent ‘rise of populism’ identified by several authors around the world. This theory is also able to explain numerous empirical findings: I connect the model to the literature from different academic approaches (behavioral, comparative, and institutional) and different geographical regions (the United States, Latin America, and Europe). Special reference is made to four prominent outsiders: Donald Trump, Hugo Chávez, Alberto Fujimori, and Jean-Marie Le Pen

Charisma · Economics · Government (linguistics · Latin Americans · Mainstream · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Positive economics · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Media Influence and Politics · Populism, Right-Wing Movements