Abstract
Research has demonstrated that resentful emotions toward the politics<em> </em>and perceptions of being culturally and economically threatened by immigration increase support for populist parties in some European countries, and that macro-level economic conditions engender those perceptions and emotions and increase populist support. This article reveals that household-level economic conditions also affect perceptions of cultural and economic threat by immigrants. Low- and middle-income populations are more vulnerable to suffer economic distress due to macro-level factors such as import shock, which can increase their resentment toward democracy, and their perceptions that immigration is a cultural and economic threat, therefore increasing the likelihood to vote for populist parties. A mediation analysis using the European Social Survey data from 2002 to 2018 provides evidence for the argument.
Highlights
Support for populist parties grew substantially in some European countries since the 2000s
We argue that percep‐ tions of cultural and economic threat and resentment at the status quo mediate the effect of family economic conditions on vote for populists
The first component of the principal component score (PCA) created to sum‐ marize those dimensions captures a large portion of their variation, and the analysis indicates that one com‐ ponent is sufficient to represent the underlying vari‐ ables
Summary
Support for populist parties grew substantially in some European countries since the 2000s. We argue that as families’ economic condi‐ tions decline, feelings of resentment at the status quo, and perceptions that immigrants represent an economic and cultural threat to the country, increase. These per‐ ceptions and resentment, affect support for right‐ wing populism. Using the ESS data from 2002 to 2018, this article shows that, on average, around 55% of the effect of fam‐ ilies’ income on the propensity to vote for right‐wing populist parties is mediated by the effect of the former on feelings of resentment at the status quo and percep‐ tions of being culturally and economically threatened by immigrants. When we control for the effect of macro‐level economic conditions, such as regional‐level unemployment, import shocks, inflow of immigrants, and regional trade balance, that media‐ tion effect remains close to 50%
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