Popescu, BogdanJugl, Marlene2024-06-252024-06-252025Popescu, Bogdan G., and Marlene Jugl. “Civic Associations, Populism, and (Un-)Civic Behavior: Evidence from Germany.” Political Science Research and Methods, 13:150–66. 2025.https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2024.19https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14490/151Civic associations are expected to foster civic, pro-social behavior, but this optimistic view is increasingly contested. We argue that populist radical right parties can strategically target and infiltrate associations to diffuse anti-establishment rhetoric and anti-democratic attitudes. We illustrate this phenomenon by examining the relationship between civic associations and compliance with government rules during Germany's first Covid-19 lockdown with a difference-in-differences design. Results show that areas with denser sport, nature, and culture clubs recorded higher mobility under lockdown. We document the infiltration mechanism and the spreading of anti-democratic attitudes within associations, using survey and election data and qualitative evidence including interviews. In doing so, we shed light on a negative effect of social networks and an understudied strategy of challenger populist parties.enAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Comparative political economyComparative politicsPolitical sociologyDeveloped countriesArticle