The system is broken: Can we have some more?

ObjectiveIn this article, we explore how populist beliefs and related attitudes (nativism and system-level discontent) are associated with support for government spending across a wide range of countries and spending categories. MethodUsing cross-sectional survey data spanning 18 democratic countries, we test how each of these constructs affects support for government spending on education, healthcare, social welfare, and job creation, and how that support is affected by explicit tradeoffs between spending increases, taxation, and public debt. ResultsPopulism and system-level discontent are associated with support for increased government spending, while nativism is associated with opposition to government spending. ConclusionsThis creates an inherent and perhaps intractable tension within right-wing populist movements. The nativist sentiments that animate right-wing populist movements work to undermine support for redistributive spending.