When Economic and Cultural Interests Align: The Anti-immigration Voter Coalitions Driving Far Right Party Success in Europe
Halikiopoulou, D. and Vlandas, T. (2021) “When economic and cultural interests align: the anti-immigration voter coalitions driving far right party success in Europe” European Political Science Review
80 Pages Posted: 9 Jun 2022
Date Written: May 29, 2020
Abstract
This article contests the view that the strong positive correlation between anti-immigration attitudes and far right party success constitutes evidence in support of the cultural grievance thesis and against the economic grievance thesis. We argue that far right party success depends on the ability to mobilise a coalition of interests between their core supporters, i.e. voters with cultural grievances over immigration and the, often, larger group of voters with economic grievances over immigration. Using individual level data from 8 rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS), our empirical analysis shows that while cultural concerns over immigration are a stronger predictor of far right party support, those who are concerned with the impact of immigration on the economy are important to the far right in numerical terms. Taken together, our findings suggest that economic grievances over immigration remain pivotal within the context of the transnational cleavage.
Keywords: Far right parties; anti-immigration attitudes; culture; economy; European Social Survey; Europe
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