A survey of people from 9 countries found that in Italy, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Brazil, and Argentina, support for populist leaders is driven by authoritarian populist attitudes. In contrast, anti-establishment populism was the dominant factor in France and Canada, while neither of these dimensions was important in the U.S. The research was published in Frontiers in Political Science. Populist leaders are political figures who claim to represent “the people” against a perceived corrupt, self-serving, or detached elite. They frame politics as a moral struggle between a virtuous majority and a small group of powerful insiders who are said to undermine the public interest. Populism is not tied to a single ideology and can appear on both the left and the right of the political spectrum. Left-wing populist leaders typically focus on economic inequality, corporate power, and redistribution, portraying financial elites and large corporations as the main enemies of the people. Right-wing populist leaders more often emphasize national identity, cultural cohesion, immigration, and sovereignty, portraying outsiders or minorities as threats to the people’s way of life. …