Populism and Minimalist Democracy

Abstract

We develop a model where a populist produces and distributes anti-establishment rhetoric, in anticipation of how voters respond to the rhetoric. By doing so, we provide a general framework to understand how populism is affected by changes in technology and the institutional environment. The model uncovers a complementarity between digital media and voter suppression in producing populism, offering an explanation for the uneven strengths of populism across time and space. The complementarity produces three implications. First, populism in the digital era is intrinsically hostile towards even a “minimalist” majoritarian democracy. Second, under strong voter suppression, a more “centrist” society actually encourages populism. Third, the complementarity rationalizes the recent revival of voter suppression in the United States.