ABSTRACT

Volodymyr Zelensky and his party Sluha Narodu won Ukraine’s 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections after espousing populist rhetoric. Yet their brand of populism diverged from the far left, the far right, and the center. We propose that Zelensky and Sluha Narodu campaigned as “anti-polarization” populists, drawing on opposition to pre-existing polarization in the Ukrainian political establishment while capitalizing on weak party identification among Ukrainian voters. We utilize electoral results, data from a survey carried out immediately prior to the 2019 parliamentary elections, and interviews to identify Sluha Narodu’s sources of support. We find Sluha Narodu’s supporters were more likely to hold moderately strong or neutral opinions on key issues in Ukrainian politics and to mix both the Russian and Ukrainian languages in their daily lives. Interviews suggest these voters valued character in choosing Sluha Narodu over what were conventionally understood to be salient issues in Ukrainian politics.

摘要

Volodymyr Zelensky 和他的政党 Sluha Narodu 在支持民粹主义言论后赢得了乌克兰 2019 年的总统和议会选举。然而，他们的民粹主义品牌却从极左、极右和中间分道扬镳。我们建议泽连斯基和斯鲁哈·纳罗杜以“反两极分化”民粹主义者的身份竞选，利用对乌克兰政治体制中先前存在的两极分化的反对，同时利用乌克兰选民中较弱的政党认同。我们利用选举结果、2019 年议会选举前不久进行的一项调查数据以及访谈来确定 Sluha Narodu 的支持来源。我们发现 Sluha Narodu 的支持者更有可能对乌克兰政治中的关键问题持有中等强度或中立的意见，并在日常生活中混合使用俄语和乌克兰语。采访表明，这些选民在选择 Sluha Narodu 时更看重人品，而不是传统上被认为是乌克兰政治中的突出问题。