Populist attitudes have been shown to predict voting behavior. These attitudes consist of a belief that everyday citizens are better judges of what is best for their own country than politicians and that the political elites are corrupt. As such, a clear “us” (pure and good everyday citizens) and “them” (the evil political elite) rhetoric is present. In the present research, we propose that identification with the government may predict whether people would vote for, and whether they have voted in the past for, a populist party (either from the political left or the political right). The present research (N = 562), carried out among French citizens, showed that lower government identification related to past voting behavior, current voting intentions and likelihood to switch from a non-populist to a populist party. Identification with the government was also negatively associated to intention to abstain from voting. Moreover, government identification was a stronger predictor of these voting-related outcomes than the recently developed populist attitudes measures. Unexpectedly, national identification was a not a significant predictor of voting behavior. In conclusion, the present research suggests that the extent to which citizens identify and feel represented by the government should be considered on par with populist attitudes in understanding support for populist parties. Perceiving that the government does not represent everyday people may be sufficient to abandon support for mainstream (non-populist) political parties.

中文翻译：

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人民的力量：与政府的认同和对民粹主义的支持

平民主义态度已被证明可以预测投票行为。这些态度是一种信念，即与政治人物相比，每天公民都是对自己国家最有利的法官，政治精英是腐败的。这样，就出现了明确的“我们”（纯正的日常公民）和“他们”（邪恶的政治精英）的言论。在本研究中，我们建议与政府的认同可以预测人们是否会投票支持民粹党（过去是从政治左翼还是从政治右翼），以及他们过去是否曾为民粹党投票。本研究（N = 562）在法国公民中进行的调查显示，较低的政府身份与过去的投票行为，当前的投票意图以及从非民粹主义者转变为民粹党的可能性有关。与政府的认同也与放弃投票的意愿负相关。此外，与最近制定的民粹态度措施相比，政府认同是这些投票相关结果的更强有力的预测指标。出乎意料的是，国民身份并不是投票行为的重要预测指标。总之，本研究表明，在理解对民粹主义政党的支持时，应将公民认同和感觉到政府代表的程度与民粹主义态度相提并论。