Populist Attitudes and Radical Politics in Hong Kong: An Empirical Analysis

A rise in populism has been observed not only in Europe and America, but also in Chinese society. In this study, populist attitudes in Hong Kong were investigated using telephone survey data. They were measured in terms of a thin-centred ideology, using a multidimensional scale. Our study had two objectives. First, we explored the source of populist attitudes in Hong Kong. We found that a sense of declinism is positively correlated with populist attitudes. However, socio-demographic factors including income and education have had little effect on populist attitudes. The results suggest that perceptions have a stronger power to explain populism than socio-demographic positions. Second, we examined the relationship between populist attitudes and radicalism. People with stronger populist attitudes were found to be more radical in their partisan preferences and approaches to fighting for social justice.