Institute of Sociology NASU

PECULIARITIES OF MEASURING THE CITIZENS’ POPULIST ORIENTATIONS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

stmm. 2022 (2): 40-58

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2022.02.040

OLEKSANDR REZNIK, Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Senior Research Fellow, Head of the Department of Social and Political Processes, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12, Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021)

oleksanderreznik@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5201-8489

OLEG KOZLOVSKIY, Candidate of Sciences in Philosophy, Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Social and Political Processes, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12, Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021)

alic.uss4@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9619-1347

In connection with the spread of populism in the world there was a question of measuring populist orientations. In the social sciences, several scales of measurement have been proposed, based on the already stable conceptualization of attitudes toward populist ideas. The structure of populist orientations has a multidimensional composition consisting of two or more conceptual components. Citizens are considered populists if they adopt anti-elitist views, have a Manichean vision of political processes, and believe in unlimited popular sovereignty as opposed to the pluralistic procedures of representative democracy. The article states the existence of conceptual convergence in attempts to empirically study the support of populism at the mass level. At the same time, it is pointed out that an adaptation of the scales for measuring populist orientations for the study of Ukrainian society should take into account the peculiarities of citizens’ attitudes towards post-communist elites. After all, Ukraine is characterized by the absence of a long state tradition of selecting the ruling elite, when a negative attitude towards the political class prevails, regardless of populist orientations. And this raises some caveats for the use of measurement techniques that are more acceptable for the study of established societies.

Keywords: populism, measuring populism, populist orientations, transitional society

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Received 28.04.2022