Is populism popular abroad? Evidence from diasporas around the globe

Abstract

Populist parties—which typically denounce migrants, globalization, and policy outcomes appreciated by emigrants, and which in turn typically make few efforts to persuade or mobilize expatriate citizens—are likely to see lower vote shares among those voting from abroad. Legislative election results from fifty countries worldwide confirm the hypothesis that more populist parties tend to receive lower shares of out-of-country than of in-country votes: low-populism parties receive roughly the same vote share abroad as they do domestically, while high-populism parties on average receive a third less of the diaspora vote than they do of the domestic vote.