Populism in the Netherlands : Theoretical approaches on populism studied from a voter’s perspective

The aim of this paper is to study populism in the Netherlands within the theoretical framework of five approaches on the concept of populism, populism as ideology, a strategy, a discourse, political logic and a political style to examine how populism in the Netherlands most accurate can be classified. The focus of this paper is on voters’ attitudes and motivations to vote for populist political actors. The main question of this paper is which of the theoretical approaches on the concept of populism fit(s) voters’ considerations to vote for populist political actors in the Netherlands most accurate? The five theoretical approaches on populism are tested by five hypotheses. The approach of populism as a strategy is rejected, the ideological, political logic and political style approaches are only partly confirmed. The approach on populism as a discourse is fully confirmed and appears to fit voters’ considerations to vote for populist political actors in the Netherlands most accurate, because, firstly, political content and policy proposals are considered most important to voters when deciding to vote for a specific political actor, secondly, the output, and with that the narrative, of politics is valued as most important by populist voters in the Netherlands.