Eastern Europe's Inclusive Populism of Employment

With the rise to power of populists in Hungary and Poland, and the dramatic increase in populist parties represented in government across Europe, scholars have begun to consider the impact of populist and populist right parties on economic policies. In contrast to most papers, which examine the impacts of populists in government through detailed case studies, we deploy quantitative methods to test a wide range of hypotheses using the Comparative Politics Data Set that covers all European countries since 1960. While Mudde and Kaltwasser (2013) distinguish between "inclusive" Latin American populism and "exclusionary" European populism, we find that a distinct variant of populist economics is developing in Eastern Europe. Our study shows little impact of populists in government for most economic policy indicators -- except for employment. Populists play a strong role in boosting employment, particularly in post-communist European countries after 2009, reacting to neoliberal transition policies that greatly reduced employment. Coauthor Maria Snegovaya, Virginia Tech, may also attend.