Who Are the Populists in Iceland? Measuring Populist Attitudes in Icelandic Voters

• Main Author: Jimena Klauer Morales 1988-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Milliríkjasamskipti; Popúlismi; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/34694

Populism has become a buzz word, as everyone, from politicians to the media, throw the term around without much regard to what it truly means. The great majority of the research on populism has been focused on radical right-wing populist movements across Europe, and less attention has been given to left or center populist movements. Additionally, most research focuses on the causes of populism, and less so on the characteristics of the individuals who display populist attitudes. For this reason, the purpose of this research is to identify the individual-level attributes and party preferences of populist supporters in Iceland. To do this, the thesis analyzes the repercussions of the 2008 economic crisis and assesses whether the political events that followed the “crash” were the catalyst for the rise of center-left populism. Through the interpretation of the post-crisis election results, the study postulates who are the individuals who are most likely to display populist attitudes. To substantiate the hypotheses, the study builds a theoretically-consistent and empirically-sound mechanism to measure populist attitudes, through the creation of a “populism scale”. Using the populism scale, the research then assesses whether there exists a relationship between populist attitudes and individual-level characteristics and party preferences.