Universität zu Köln

Van Hauwaert, Steven M., Schimpf, Christian H. and Azevedo, Flavio ORCID: 0000-0001-9000-8513 (2020). The measurement of populist attitudes: Testing cross-national scales using item response theory. Politics, 40 (1). S. 3 - 22. LONDON: SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD. ISSN 1467-9256

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Abstract

Recent research in the populism literature has devoted considerable efforts to the conceptualisation and examination of populism on the individual level, that is, populist attitudes. Despite rapid progress in the field, questions of adequate measurement and empirical evaluation of measures of populist attitudes remain scarce. Seeking to remedy these shortcomings, we apply a cross-national measurement model, using item response theory, to six established and two new populist indicators. Drawing on a cross-national survey (nine European countries, n = 18,368), we engage in a four-folded analysis. First, we examine the commonly used 6-item populism scale. Second, we expand the measurement with two novel items. Third, we use the improved 8-item populism scale to further refine equally comprehensive but more concise and parsimonious populist measurements. Finally, we externally validate these sub-scales and find that some of the proposed sub-scales outperform the initial 6- and 8-item scales. We conclude that existing measures of populism capture moderate populist attitudes, but face difficulties measuring more extreme levels, while the individual information of some of the populist items remains limited. Altogether, this provides several interesting routes for future research, both within and between countries.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Van Hauwaert, Steven M. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Schimpf, Christian H. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Azevedo, Flavio UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0001-9000-8513 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-135358
DOI:	10.1177/0263395719859306
Journal or Publication Title:	Politics
Volume:	40
Number:	1
Page Range:	S. 3 - 22
Date:	2020
Publisher:	SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
Place of Publication:	LONDON
ISSN:	1467-9256
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language CONFIRMATORY FACTOR-ANALYSIS; MEASUREMENT EQUIVALENCE; PEOPLE; PERSONALITY Multiple languages International Relations; Political Science Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/13535