2022-03 Demand for protection

This recent backlash against globalization is often tied to the rise in populism over the past decade. This paper studies the degree to which an increase in populist rhetoric on the part of nation’s leaders can increase the support for trade protection among constituents using data from the International Social Survey Program’s (ISSP) National Identity module and the Global Populism Database between 1995 and 2013. I find evidence that support for protection does increase with the level of leftward-leaning populist rhetoric, or that which focuses on economic cleavages in society, by the country’s leaders. As one might expect, this increase in support is particularly strong among voters that identify with political parties on the left.