Nuancing the Voter Landscape: Radical right and radical left constituencies in Europe
How do the voters of radical right and radical left parties compare?
Building on previous work that explores the differences between radical constituencies, this paper by Alexandru Filip seeks to elaborate upon existing models by accounting for the effects of welfare chauvinism, identity, and culture. While voters who favour egalitarianism and redistribution are typically expected to vote for the far left, the situation becomes more complicated when more ideational aspects are factored in.
Analysing data from the European Social Survey, this paper finds the cultural dimension to be a very strong predictor of radical party choice: voters at the ‘progressive’ pole of the cultural dimensions have a strong likelihood of voting for the radical left, while those at the ‘conservative’ pole register a high probability of voting for the radical right. These results stand even when controlling for attitudes towards immigration. This paper also finds that the effect of this ‘new politics’ dimension amplifies over time, speaking to the growing salience of the vertical cleavage.
Read the full paper here.
Key words: Welfare chauvinism, immigration, radical parties, European politics, elections
Photo by James Cridland
