Common populist spirit? A comparative analysis of Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Law and Justice (PiS)

Master's Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - Other International Politics Topics, grade: 1,0, Warsaw University, language: English, abstract: This study sheds light upon the phenomenon of populism by comparing the parties Alternative for Germany and Law and Justice regarding a common populist spirit. While the manifold understandings of populism and its origins are expounded, the study applies the ideological approach of populism to further conduct a research upon the right-wing populist character of both parties. However, both parties are not right-wing populist parties in their very fundament but underwent a transformation into such through two populist moments. Applying a binominal logistic regression reveals populist determinants of voting behavior for each party, and thus, their ideological core. While a fer-tile breeding ground for right-wing populist attitudes is given after the respective first populist moment of each party, it can be shown as well that such attitudes have not been decisively influencing voting decision at that time.