Guillem Rico

Autonomous University of Barcelona | UAB ·  Departamento de Ciencia Política y Derecho Público

The Spanish Political Attitudes Panel Dataset (POLAT) is an ongoing panel study carried out in Spain. The present research note introduces the dataset, and presents some results of the first six waves, fielded in political context defined by a prolonged economic recession, major corruption scandals and widespread mass protests (2010-‍2014). The lon...

The use of quality measures is important for transparency and the continuous improvement of performance. However, we do not know enough about the relationship between registered process measures and patient reported experience measures (PREMs) in primary healthcare. Recent studies point to areas of convergence that run contrary anticipated trends....

This article contends that sexism plays a fundamental role in the electoral rise of the far right, both as a predisposition and as a changing attitude. Using panel data from Spain, we show that modern sexism is indeed among the most important attitudinal predictors of voting for the far‐right party Vox. The results also show that internal individua...

While research concludes that populist leaders stand out for their “dark” personalities, studies on the psychological underpinnings of citizens’ populist attitudes are scant and inconclusive, with some agreement on the association between disagreeableness and populist attitudes. By bringing the Dark Triad personality traits of narcissism, psychopat...

In this article we analyze the effects of election salience on affective polarization. Campaigns and elections epitomize the moment of maximum political conflict, information spread, mobilization, and activation of political identities and predispositions. We therefore expect that affective polarization will be higher just after an election has tak...

In this article, we argue that voters use party positions on an issue dimension as a heuristic device to locate parties on other dimensions on which they have less information about. We confirm our argument by fielding two survey experiments in a context with two distinct issue dimensions: the left-right and national dimensions in Catalonia. We fin...

This paper addresses the psychological dynamics between internal political efficacy, emotions, and support for populism. Contrary to the extended idea that populism is associated with low levels of political competence, we argue that individuals’ self‐competence beliefs enhance populist attitudes. Individuals who conceive themselves as able to unde...

This article analyses the relationship between populist attitudes and political participation. We argue that populist attitudes can be a motivation for participation through their identity, emotional, and moral components, and that they have the potential to narrow socioeconomic gaps in participation. Using survey data from nine European countries,...

In the context of increasingly salient economic disparities between member states, this article tests the novel theoretical claim that perceptions of inequality between European Union (EU) member states diminish citizens' trust in European institutions. Drawing on system justification theory, we argue that the negative effect of perceived intercoun...

While the foundational claim that PSM attracts individuals to the public sector is well established in the research literature, much uncertainty still exists about its influence on the choice between the public versus the nonprofit sector, which also frequently exhibits a strong public service mission. Little is known also about how discrete dimens...

How do national economic crises affect citizens’ feelings of attachment to the nation? Does a country’s loss of economic status trigger expressions of nationalism as is often assumed? Building on insights from social identity theory, we hypothesize that crises of the national economy do not lead to a generalized increase of nationalism but that the...

Voters’ ability to hold politicians accountable has been shown to be limited in systems of multilevel government. The existence of multiple tiers of government blurs the lines of responsibility, making it more difficult for voters to assign credit or blame for policy performance. However, much less is known about how the vertical division of respon...

The chapter analyses the consequences of the economic recession in Spain for the development of populist attitudes and the appearance of a left-wing populist party, Podemos. In the first section, we contextualise the Spanish case and we show that Podemos’ voters are the ones that hold highest levels of populist attitudes. In the second section, we...

In recent years, scholars have started to measure and explain populism at the micro-level, as an attitude that individuals hold about politics. Multiple scales have been proposed but, as the overview by Van Hauwaert et al. indicates, they all have limitations. Most do not capture a broad range of the phenomenon – being able to discriminate only amo...

Popular accounts of populist movements often point to negative emotions as a key motivating factor underlying their support. However, little systematic research has been devoted to examining differences in how distinct negative emotions affect levels of populism among voters. This paper attempts to fill this gap by focusing on the influence of the...

Este trabajo se centra en la motivación para el servicio público (MSP). Se trata de un concepto con un significado determinado en la literatura académica internacional sobre Administración pública. En términos generales se refiere a aquellas personas que tienen una motivación social, lo que les induce a implicarse profesionalmente en servicios públ...

This paper analyses individuals' adoption of populist attitudes in nine European countries in the wake of the Great Recession. We assess the consequences of three different, interrelated aspects of economic hardship that are expected to foster the development of populist attitudes at the individual level: vulnerability, personal experience of the c...

This paper explores the dynamics between negative emotions elicited by the economic crisis and populism. We theorize different expectations regarding the relationship between anger, anxiety and sadness on the one hand, and populist attitudes and vote choice on the other. Anger is expected to be the main emotional driver of populism. This is so beca...

Given the significance of the left-right dimension as one of the most frequently employed capping term of ideological thought in most western democracies, the question arises as to how people come to identify themselves along this continuum. Drawing on a set of parent-child pairs located in Catalonia, we seek to determine whether the processes foun...

Called two years ahead of schedule, the 2012 Catalan election was held in a context of economic recession, controversial austerity measures, growing political disaffection, and increasing popular support for Catalonia's independence. The election was mainly marked by the decision of the incumbent moderate nationalists to advocate for the region's s...

Although a considerable amount of research exists regarding the transfer of political orientations within the family, little systematic attention has been devoted to studying the transmission of place (territorial) identities in contexts where such identities constitute a basic cleavage of political competition. This article examines the transfer o...

This paper examines the context, actors, campaign, and results of the Catalan election of 2010, which took place in a context of economic recession and growing political discontent. I argue that certain circumstances concurred in this particular contest to enhance the influence of factors pertaining to the first-order (i.e. national) arena as compa...

The Spanish general election of 2004 was held just three days after the tragic bombing in Madrid by an Islamic terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda, on 11 March. The incumbent conservative party, the PP, was unexpectedly defeated at the polls by the socialist party, the PSOE, which won with a five percentage point advantage, whereas most forecasts ha...

Abstract will be provided by author.

Although a considerable amount of research exists regarding the transfer of political orientations within the family, little systematic attention has been devoted to studying the transmission of national identities in contexts where such identities constitute a basic cleavage of political competition. This paper examines the transfer of national id...