Regional Peripheralization as Contextual Source of Populist Attitudes in Germany and Czech Republic

Abstract

This article seeks to shed more light on the reasons for the regionally uneven distribution of populist attitudes. We take into account both individual-level and contextual drivers and focus mainly on the latter. We argue that regional peripheralization processes are a key contextual condition driving populist attitudes, especially in post-communist settings. The empirical analysis is based on a unique dataset combining comparable items from two representative surveys covering Germany ( N = 2112) and the Czech Republic ( N = 1000) with economic and demographic characteristics of relevant regional contexts in both countries (167 constituencies in Germany and 77 districts in the Czech Republic). Using multilevel regression models, the article shows that individual-level characteristics do not alone drive populist attitudes. In contrast, the results show that living in peripheral areas of the Czech Republic and eastern Germany increases the likelihood of having populist attitudes. These peripheries are characterized by unfavourable economic conditions in the Czech Republic and demographic decline in eastern Germany.