Populism and democracy in Pakistan: a survey-based analysis of populist attitudes, institutional trust, and political engagement

This study examines the relationships among populist attitudes, institutional trust, and political engagement within Pakistan’s hybrid political system. An ideational conception of populism provides the measurement foundation, while discursive and performative perspectives guide the interpretation of Pakistan-specific appeals involving anti-elitism, charisma, religious-moral framing, national sovereignty, and media amplification. A structured five-point Likert questionnaire was administered to 240 adult Pakistani participants recruited through academic and professional networks associated with politics, administration, law, media, and civil society. The purposive, expert-informed sample is interpreted as a politically informed respondent group rather than a nationally representative population. The fifteen reported items showed moderate endorsement, with means ranging from 2.94 to 3.36. The instrument demonstrated acceptable exploratory consistency (Cronbach’s α = .72), adequate factorability (KMO = .651; Bartlett’s test, p < .001), and three components accounting for 54.32% of the reported variance. The bivariate record indicates a positive association between populist orientation and political engagement (r = .345, p < .01) and a smaller positive association with institutional trust (r = .216, p < .05). The available regression summaries conflict with the reported correlation directions, regression-based claims are withheld pending verification of the source data and composite scoring. The findings suggest that populist attitudes may stimulate participation while making institutional legitimacy conditional on perceived accountability, responsiveness, and popular will.