Publications by Fellows: Kirk A. Hawkins, Grant A. Mitchell: The Effect of Populist Incumbents on Democracy

In a new paper published in PS: Political Science and Politics journal’s symposium, our Global Forum Convener Kirk Hawkins and Global Forum Fellow Grant Mitchell discuss the future of scholarship on populism and its effect on democratic contestation, participation, and representation.

In the publication by Cambridge University Press, the authors pay special attention to how populism is measured, as they claim many current measures are inadequate for future research. They claim that populism scholars have overlooked two opportunities for enhancing research. First, improvements in empirical work through better measurements of populism and the greater use of cross-regional studies can provide more conclusive tests of populists’ impact. These measurements are already available. Second, greater commitment to research designs that set different causal arguments against each other will allow the field to make a stronger scientific contribution. Political scientists should do more than simply identify correlations, they argue.

Read the paper here.