Since Tocqueville (1835), civil society has been recognized as a cornerstone of liberal democracy. But populists claim to be the only legitimate representatives of the people, leaving no space for civil society. Are populism and civil society enemies? To answer this question, we look at voters’ choices in Europe. We find that individuals belonging to associations are less likely by 1.6–2.8 percentage points to vote for populist parties, which is large considering that the average vote share for populist parties is between 12% and 22%. This result survives a large number of robustness checks.

中文翻译：

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民粹主义和公民社会

自托克维尔（Tocqueville）（1835 年）以来，公民社会被公认为自由民主的基石。但民粹主义者声称自己是人民的唯一合法代表，没有给公民社会留下任何空间。民粹主义和公民社会是敌人吗？为了回答这个问题，我们看看欧洲选民的选择。我们发现，属于协会的个人投票支持民粹主义政党的可能性要低 1.6-2.8 个百分点，考虑到民粹主义政党的平均投票份额在 12% 到 22% 之间，这一比例很大。该结果在大量稳健性检查中幸免于难。