Electoral Earthquake: Natural Disasters and the Geography of Discontent

Augusto Cerqua, Chiara Ferrante and Marco Letta

No 790, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: The recent literature on the determinants of populism has highlighted the role of long-term trends of progressive isolation and prolonged economic stagnation in engendering discontent and, in turn, demand for political change. We investigate, instead, the potential of unanticipated local shocks in shaping the ‘geography of discontent’. Using comprehensive data at a fine spatial scale and a comparative natural experiment approach, we document that the occurrence of two destructive earthquakes in Italy resulted in sharply diverging electoral outcomes: while the 2012 Emilia quake did not alter voting behaviour, the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake paved the way for an impressive and persistent surge in right-wing populism in the most affected areas. Such heterogeneous patterns mainly originate from a stark contrast in post-disaster reconstruction processes and shifts in institutional trust. Our findings are consistent with the idea that not only “places that don’t matter”, but also “places that don’t recover”, can become populist hotbeds.

Keywords: elections; populism; discontent; natural disasters; earthquakes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H12 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Electoral earthquake: natural disasters and the geography of discontent (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:n790

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