Populists’ Playbook: Impact of Durable Right-Wing Populists on Democratic Quality

Abstract

We study the impact of right-wing populist regimes on democratic quality. Data are drawn from four populist regimes led by charismatic leaders who derive their legitimacy from their personal appeal and have achieved tremendous electoral success. We use synthetic control methods to construct a control unit for each individual country and find that the election of populist leaders leads to large and statistically significant declines in political civil liberty, academic freedom, and an increase in government censorship of media. These effects are observed both in individual countries and in the average across all treated countries. Results also indicate a decline in the rule of law in some countries, although this effect is often small and statistically insignificant. Overall, the empirical evidence corroborates anecdotal evidence from academic literature and popular media and suggests that the election of right-wing populist leaders can undermine fundamental principles of liberal democracy.