What Drives Populist Votes? Recent Insights and Open Questions

Thiemo Fetzer and Robert Gold

No 1, Working Papers from Forum New Economy

Abstract: This paper provides an overview on current research on the rise of populism in Europe. The focus is on economic developments that foster voting for populist parties and candidates. The paper argues that the simultaneity of macro-economic shocks from the financial crisis, globalization, and technological change increased inequality between skill and income groups. This increased the demand for populist policies amongst those on the losing side of economic development. Perceived distributional conflict was exacerbated by immigration and austerity policies. Economics alone, however, is not sufficient for explaining the large increases in electoral support of populists. While culture also plays a role, it is the individual voter who eventually decides whom to vote for. And populist parties are particular successful in developing strategies to attract voters that feel anxious about current and future economic developments.

Keywords: populism; protest voting; globalization; European Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 F5 F6 H3 H5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2019-10, Revised 2019-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-pol and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:agz:wpaper:1901

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