Populism in Peru: Populist attitudes and perception of the populist offer and its relationship with political cynicism and attitudes toward democracy

Abstract

Populism is a phenomenon that is gaining attention in Political Psychology. The goal of the current study was to determine the relationship between populist attitudes, based on the populist demand and the perception of the populist offer, and several indices of political cynicism and attitudes toward democracy in Peru. To do this, a quantitative correlational study including 391 participants from diverse Peruvian locations was carried out. Both populist attitudes and critical perception of the populist offer are found to be directly related to Political Cynicism in its dimensions of Political Distrust, Political Hopelessness, and Political Moral Laxity, and inversely related to the dimension of Political System Change. Similarly, both dimensions of populism are directly related to Democratic Support and inversely related to Democratic Satisfaction. The findings support the notion that populist attitudes emerge in the context of distrust of the system and express an ambivalent relationship with democracy. Furthermore, the various approaches developed by the social sciences to address the populist phenomenon are discussed in terms of their strengths and limitations.

Psychopolitical Explanation of a Presidential Impeachment in Peru. The Role of Populist Attitudes And Political Moral Laxity in President Castillo’s Removal

“…In this particular case, it seems to be true that populist attitudes, which have been overexploited by the leftist former president (Meléndez, 2022), emerge in contexts of distrust in the system and express an ambivalent relationship with democracy (Espinosa et al, 2022b;Van Hauwaert et al, 2020). This is an aspect that would be strengthened by the presence of political moral laxity and positives attitudes towards illiberal democracy in the regression model.…”

“…From a general point of view, it could be argued that Castillo's fall was an expected situation from the moment when he weakened his populist support (Espinosa et al, 2023b). The questioning of his administration and his rapprochement with conservative power groups cost him much of his popular support (Lynch, 2023;Vergara, 2023), which explains why the majority of the sample, mostly from Lima, were in favour of Castillo's removal from power (Espinosa et al, 2023a;Meléndez, 2022). However, the explanatory contribution of the psychopolitical indicators must be closely monitored in order to observe the attitudes that accompany support of the president impeachment.…”

“…The Populist Attitudes scale presented in Rovira & Van Hauwaert (2020) and adapted to Spanish by Espinosa et al (2022b) was used. It measures the degree to which citizens believe that "the people" are a virtuous and homogeneous entity, disagree with "the elites" and defend popular sovereignty against elitist government and also addresses how populist proposals are perceived.…”

“…The second analysis measures populist attitudes and political moral laxity, taking into account the degree of political polarisation in Peruvian discourse (Vergara, 2023). Regarding populist attitudes, these allow us to understand the moral representation of politicians and citizens (Rovira Kaltwasser & Van Hauwaert, 2020), contrasting features such as the idealisation of the people against a corrupt elite that, for its own convenience, affects the welfare of people in society (Espinosa et al, 2022b;Mudde & Rovira Kaltwasser, 2017;Van Hauwaert et al, 2020). In contrast to the assessment of populism, Political Moral Laxity is measured as the way in which people can align themselves with a socio-political system that does not necessarily guarantee conditions of justice for its citizens (Costa-Lopes et al, 2013;Espinosa et al, 2022a).…”

Population confidence in the health system in 15 countries: results from the first round of the People's Voice Survey

“…Local political and social dynamics probably had an important role in Peru, which had high COVID-19 mortality, multiple political upheavals in the past 2 years, and some of the lowest confidence ratings. 58 , 59 By contrast, in Kenya and Ethiopia, widely publicised health insurance expansion and increased visibility of health leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic could have promoted optimism in the health system, together with relatively fewer deaths and reported cases.…”