| Summary/Abstract |
Do populists pursue distinct kinds of policies, and if so, how successful are those policies? Populist rhetoric often invokes themes of redistribution insofar as leaders claim that power and resources need to be restored to “the people.” As a result, populists tend to offer a very broad view of social policy that emphasizes security, order, rewards, and punishments. Populists’ narratives may be simple, but once in office, they may face complex problems that call for more sophisticated policy solutions. This study examines whether populist policies fit the messages they deliver to their target voters, and aims to contribute to the development of a methodology for determining that relationship in specific empirical cases. I focus on the case of Russia, which enacted a major change in its old-age pension system in 2018 under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin.
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