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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Evangelical Protestants, populist attitudes, political beliefs, religious traditions

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Political Science

Abstract

Populism is a set of ideas that sees a strict dichotomy of corrupt elite suppressing the unified will of people (Hawkins 2009). From the Populist Party of the 1890’s to the current day Tea Party, populist ideas have a long history of use in America and have been used in a number of pressing political arguments (Kazin 1995). While populist attitudes have been very well documented and frequently studied in countries outside the United States, (Hawkins 2009) few scholars have documented populist attitudes in America. Further, little work has been done to explain where populist ideas come from. Despite all we know about religions’ influence on political beliefs, (Wald 2011) there are few significant studies that have explored the connection between an individual’s populist attitudes and their religion. This project corrects that error and fills that void of knowledge. Using the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Elections Study data, I explored the connection between populism and religion. My findings better explain the causes of this democratic radicalism in the United States and causes of populist movements such as the Tea Party.

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