A little less concentration, a little more actors, please? Exploring the relationship between populist attitudes and perceptions of concentration of political power practices

Demand-side studies of populism, adapting a citizen perspective,
have grown exponentially during the last decade as a result of a
growing political and academic concern over the potential effects
of populism on the political system. Nevertheless, how populist
attitudes at the citizen level are related to actual proposals for
system-change is a surprisingly neglected research topic. One such
proposal concerns the future of multiple-mandate-holding (MMH),
i.e. the simultaneous exercise of at least two directly elected
political functions, a controversial practice in many parts of Europe.
By utilizing cross-sectional panel data gathered in Finland in 2022–
2023, a country characterized by extensive MMH among Members
of Parliament, this study seeks to explore whether and how populist
attitudes are related to the idea of representational pluralism in the
political system, defined as the level of diversity among directly
elected political representatives active within the political system.
Using statistical analyses, we confirm our hypothesis that stronger
populist attitudes are clearly associated with weaker support for
MMH in general and stronger support for limiting the scope of
MMH specifically. Our findings contribute to the theory-building of
demand-side populism by showing that populist attitudes are also
associated with the idea of representational pluralism.