Social Sciences


Populism's Roots: Economic and Cultural Explanations in Democracies of Europe (PRECEDE)

1 June 2020 - 31 May 2023

PI/s in Exeter: Professor Susan Banducci

CI/s in Exeter: Dr Laszlo Horvath

Research partners: Norbert Kersting, Lorenza Antonucci, André Krouwel, Carlo D’Ippoliti, Jan Philipp Thomeczek. Research Partners: Kieskompas BV

Funding awarded: £ 998,000

Sponsor(s): Volkswagen Stiftung

Project webpage(s)

Populism's Roots: Economic and Cultural Explanations in Democracies of Europe (PRECEDE)

About the research

The rise of populism is often portrayed as one of the most pressing challenges for the future of national and EU democracies. The consortium explores the roots of populist demands by combining political, economic and sociological factors as well as demand- and supply-side explanations.

Overall, the proposed study aims to explore the socio-economic and cultural roots of European populism by analyzing both existing established datasets and data from new online surveys across 10 European countries during national elections occurring before the 2024 EU elections: the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain, Romania, France, Sweden, Hungary and the Czech Republic.