Understanding the geography of discontent: perceptions of government’s biases against left-behind places

Abstract

ABSTRACT Governments need to make choices over distributing resources and managing socioeconomic change, which can have geographically uneven effects. This may give rise to perceptions of institutional bias against left-behind places, treating them like they ‘don’t matter’, which has been widely linked to populism. Which voters develop this viewpoint remains unclear. This study explores citizens’ perceptions of geographic bias across five European democracies (Britain, Croatia, France, Germany, and Spain), using original surveys and granular contextual data. Our results reveal that perceptions of geographic bias are widespread. Clear majorities see government as biased towards rich areas and capital cities, while around half of respondents perceive bias against rural areas. Perceptions of geographical bias reflect individuals’ location, lack of trust in government, holding populist attitudes, and being more left-wing, but not being a supporter of a populist party. Our results suggest potential for mainstream left/liberal parties, not just populists, to exploit perceptions of bias.