Who votes for the populist left?

Contemporary literature has paid attention to populism, but mainly to the populist right. Literature about the populist left has focused on the aggregate level but what voter characteristics increase the likelihood to vote for the populist left remains somewhat neglected. This thesis aims to identify voter characteristics that increase the likelihood to vote for the left wing populist party SP compared to the right wing populist party PVV and the mainstream left wing party PvdA. To add to the literature this study tests the effects of anti-capitalist attitudes, euroscepticism, political discontent, anti-migration attitudes and socio-economic status on the likelihood to vote for SP compared to PvdA and PVV. Data is deployed from the National Elections Study (NKO) 2012 (N=569). The results from this thesis show that SP voters are similar as PVV voters on levels of euroscepticism and political discontent; a key difference is the lower levels of anti-immigration attitudes and the lower levels of income that are found among SP voters. PVV voters also tend to be less educated. Compared to the mainstream left SP voters are similar in levels of political discontent and migration attitudes. The higher levels of euroscepticism and the lower levels of income distinguish the SP voters from PvdA voters, also PvdA voters tend to be higher educated than SP voters. Surprisingly, anti-capitalist attitudes have no effect on the likelihood to vote for SP compared to PVV and PvdA.