Article Right populist parties and support for strong leaders Todd Donovan Western Washington University, USA Abstract This article tests if radical right populist (RRP) parties draw support from voters with non-mainstream, illiberal attitudes. This follows from assumptions that these parties have rhetorical, stylistic and practical critiques of liberal democracy that appeal to people with politically authoritarian attitudes. I use Module 5 Comparative Study of Electoral Systems data and Wave 7 World Values Survey data to test how authoritarian attitudes, in particular, approval of strong, unchecked leaders, may be associated with support for RRP parties. Of 12 unique cases where RRP parties received at least 5% support in a recent election, in most cases preferences for strong, unchecked leaders differentiated RRP party supporters from supporters of other parties generally, and from supporters of centre-right parties. In some cases, negative views of democracy, and acceptance of army rule, also characterized RRP supporters. Most cases have evidence consistent with the hypotheses, with the strongest evidence from supporters of Austria’s FPO ¨ and Germany’s AfD. Keywords authoritarian attitudes, public opinion, right populist parties Introduction This article examines the relationship between illiberal, politically authoritarian attitudes and support for radical right populist (RRP) parties. Opinion polls regularly docu- ment that a relatively small proportion of respondents in established democracies are receptive to strong, unchecked leaders, that some find democracy a bad form of govern- ment and that some approve of having the army rule. Although there has been some debate about how such atti- tudes might reflect ‘democratic deconsolidation’ (Foa and Mounk, 2017; but see Norris, 2017), these attitudes are not typically considered in terms of how they may be reflected in political parties. I propose reasons to expect that illiberal attitudes are not randomly distributed across electorates, but are associated with radical right parties that attract supporters who have weaker attachments to liberal demo- cratic norms. Radical right (and right-wing populist) parties have largely been understood in terms of appeal based in nati- vism, anti-elite sentiments, ‘law and order’, ‘cultural back- lash’ and anti-immigrant sentiments (e.g. Hooghe et al., 2002; Inglehart and Norris, 2017; Mudde, 2010; Rydgren, 2005). Despite several RRP party leaders being known for illiberal rhetoric, limited attention has been given to how these parties are associated with supporters who may have politically authoritarian attitudes. Literature on party cleavages in Europe describes how party systems formerly defined by an older, left- interventionist versus right-liberal economic dimension have been transformed. Another cleavage associated with the mobilization of social and cultural grievances has cre- ated opportunities for RRP parties (Betz, 1994; Kitschelt and McGann, 1997; Kriesi et al., 2006; Rydgren, 2003; van der Brug and Fennema, 2003). We may have two, poten- tially related forces at play then: a segment of democratic electorates indifferent to liberal democratic norms, and party systems altered by a newer cleavage based on the mobilization of social grievances, and, I suggest, politically authoritarian sentiments. This article examines how illiberal, politically authori- tarian attitudes may be reflected in party systems in estab- lished and newer democracies. I test if preferences for Paper submitted 18 January 2020; accepted for publication 30 March 2020 Corresponding author: Todd Donovan, Department of Political Science, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225, USA. Email: todd.donovan@wwu.edu Party Politics 1–12 ª The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1354068820920853 journals.sagepub.com/home/ppq