Populist leaders in the eyes of the people: populist attitudes, attribution of charisma and influence

The populism literature (Barr, 2019; Albertazzi and McDonnell, 2008; Laclau, 2011; Moffitt, 2016; Weyland, 2001, 2017; Diehl, 2019; Urbinati, 2019) often describes political leaders as essential actors in the emergence of populist politics. However, due to conceptual and operational uncertainties, there is no consensus whether charismatic leadership is a necessary element of populism (see, e.g. Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser, 2014). The number of researches (Andrews-Lee, 2021; McDonnell, 2016) that focus on followers rather than leaders along Weberian conceptualization is relatively insignificant. To fill this gap in the literature, the article turns to the follower-centric models of generic leadership studies (Metz, 2021) for help, which examine citizens’ charisma attribution to leaders by stable and tried-and-tested conceptualization and toolbars (Aï et al., 2020). In short: following Weber's original theory (see Joosse, 2018; Willner 1985), we formulate charisma as an intimate and direct bond between leaders and followers in this article. Thus, we argue that a follower-centric approach that grasps charisma in the eyes of the followers is more than accurate. In an original survey research, the article compares respondents’ populist attitudes (Akkerman et al. 2014; Castanho Silva et al. 2019; Kefford et al. 2021; Shultz et al. 2018), charisma attribution (Conger and Kanungo 1994; Shamir 1994) and general over-attribution of the importance of leadership in political, social and economic process (Meindl et al. 2007; Shamir 1994) through modified scales building on the literature. We will test three assumptions: (1) Those followers who hold stronger populist attitudes are prone to perceive their leader as more charismatic compared to the challenger. (2) They also show emotionally positive attachment to their leaders, while they have a negative charismatic relationship with the challenger. (3) The stronger the populist attitude of the followers, the higher they evaluate the importance and impact of political leadership in general. The novelty of the research is twofold. First, we do not just adapt measurements of generic leadership studies to political context, but we also develop two scales of charisma attribution distinguished perceived charismatic behaviour and positive/negative charismatic attachment. As a result, positive and negative charisma can be measured. Second, the research is the first venture which combines populist attitudes and charisma perceptions. The survey will be carried out during the Hungarian electoral campaign in March 2022, focusing on two main rivals: the incumbent prime minister, Viktor Orbán and the leading oppositional candidate, Péter Marki-Zay.