Populism and Social Polarization in European Democracies

Bien-Être et Vote

Victor Ginsburgh, Sergio Perelman and Pierre Pestieau

CESifo Economic Studies, 2021, vol. 67, issue 4, 371-404

Abstract: The objective of this article is to explain populist attitudes that are prevailing in a number of European democracies. Populist attitudes usually lead to social protests and populist votes. We capture the populist wave by relying on values that are traditionally viewed as populist—such as distrust of institutions and neighbors, rejection of migrations, and strong preferences for law and order—rather than on voting behavior. Our study covers the period 2004–2018 and 25 European countries for which we match aggregated indicators of populist values and social polarization based on ESS and SILC survey micro-data. We show that social polarization varies dramatically across European regions, but at the same time, some convergence is observed. Our estimations confirm, in most cases, a positive and statistically significant relation between social polarization and populist attitudes. (JEL codes: D63 and I30)

Keywords: populism; polarization; social divide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Populism and Social Polarization in European Democracies (2021)
Working Paper: Populism and Social Polarization in European Democracies (2020)
Working Paper: Populism and social polarization in European democracies (2020)
Working Paper: Populism and Social Polarization in European Democracies (2020)
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