Right-wing Ideology Research Articles

Experience of economic hardship and right-wing political orientation hinder climate concern among European young people

ABSTRACT While there is extensive literature about public concern about climate change, most studies rely on cross-sectional static data. Based on a unique panel survey conducted in nine European countries in 2018 and 2019, we make a rare investigation of factors that explain why some young people (age: 18–34 years) are, have become or have lost their concern about climate and environmental issues at times of widespread discussions about the climate emergency. The analysis tests argument about the importance of individual-level factors such as values and political orientations and consider the role of cross-national variations, the experience of extreme weather events and youth-led climate strikes. Our results support prior studies as we find that young people with libertarian rather than authoritarian values, with more positive views towards immigration and redistribution policies, tend to be more concerned about climate change and the environment. We find little effect of contextual factors. Young people who have experienced economic hardship and have a right-wing political orientation are less likely to become concerned for climate and environmental issues. Socio-economic conditions, values and political orientations are crucial to understanding climate concern among young Europeans, affecting youth climate engagement at times of increasing inequalities and polarization.

A Fairy Tale Gone Wrong: Social media, Recursive Hate and the Politicisation of Drag Queen Storytime

Controversy over Drag Queen Storytime (DQS) childhood literacy events in many Western liberal democracies between 2018 and 2020 occurred within a broader rise in reported ‘hate crime’, notable in the United States and in England and Wales. Outrage from conservative US Christian anti-LGBTQ hate groups and activists, and far-right groups, included online bias-motivated harassment, in-person bias-motivated harassment, and alleged assault and property damage. This article analyses news media and public discourse on hateful conduct against DQS events in the United States and related conduct in the UK and Australia. This hateful conduct draws on legacies of the criminalisation and pathologisation of same-sex attraction, and the framing of non-conforming gender identities as ‘deceptive’. The findings emphasise the recursive nature of bias-motivated hateful conduct based on medico-legal and pseudo-scientific stigmatisation of same-sex attraction and gender fluidity, and the amplificatory capacity of social media networks to engender hateful conduct. The article analyses the broader implications of hateful conduct given the limits of the criminal law in the United States (and other Western liberal democracies such as the UK and Australia) in addressing the translation of online hate speech into bias-motivated in-person hateful conduct. In the United States, these limits are often defined through the unqualified invocation of freedom of speech protections. The article applies ‘digiqueer’ criminology as a frame to consider the harms of bigotry against LGBTQ people amplified through digital media technologies and their intersection, particularly in the US, with Christian righteousness and right-wing ideology through a ‘hate feedback loop’.

Acceptance and Adherence to COVID-19 Preventive Measures are Shaped Predominantly by Conspiracy Beliefs, Mistrust in Science and Fear - A Comparison of More than 20 Psychological Variables.

The global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic sparked a great interest in psychological factors that determine or explain peoples' responses to the novel threatening situation and the preventive measures (e.g. wearing masks, social distancing). In this study, we focused on contaminated mindware (conspiracy and paranormal beliefs) and investigated its relationship with both acceptance of and adherence to COVID-19 preventive measures, along with other variables from the domains of emotion (trait anxiety, fear), traditional personality traits (Big 5, locus of control, optimism/pessimism) and motivation (self-control, dispositional regulatory focus). A total of 22 variables were measured in an online survey (N = 374) that took place during the second wave of COVID-19 (Nov. 2020 – March 2021) in Switzerland. Of all variables, the endorsement of specific COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs was most strongly associated with lower acceptance and adherence to the preventive measures, together with mistrust in science and a more right-wing political orientation. In contrast, fear of COVID-19 and prevention regulatory focus were positively associated with acceptance and adherence. Our results therefore highlight the importance of fighting (conspiratorial) misinformation and of increasing the perceived credibility of science in reducing the spread of the coronavirus. Moreover, when acceptance was used as predictor for adherence, agreeableness and dispositional prevention regulatory focus still explained unique variance in adherence, suggesting that such personality and motivational variables play an important role in adhering and regulating preventive behaviour independent from the attitude towards the preventive measures themselves.

The Security Versus Freedom Dilemma. An Empirical Study of the Spanish Case.

One of the classic debates in public opinion, now more prevalent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been the dilemma between freedom and security. Following a theoretical review, this article sets out to establish the sociodemographic profiles and those variables that can correlate and/or explain the inclination towards one or the other, that is, the dependent variable “freedom-security,” such as victimization or the assessment of surveillance. The analysis is based on the results of a survey prepared by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS, in Spanish) and administered to a sample of 5,920 Spaniards. The conclusions indicate that the majority inclination is for security, especially among older men, with elementary education attainment level and right-wing ideology. Furthermore, although victimization correlated with the dependent variable, the perception of being a possible victim led to a preference for safety rather than the actual experience of having been a victim. Finally, the positive assessment of surveillance through technologies such as video cameras explains or is strongly associated with security, making it a promising line of research for future work and a means to improve the understanding of the analyzed dilemma.

Bringing Us Closer Together: The Influence of National Identity and Political Orientation on COVID-19-Related Behavioral Intentions.

A growing body of work has highlighted the importance of political beliefs and attitudes in predicting endorsement and engagement in prosocial behavior. Individuals with right-wing political orientation are less likely to behave prosocially than their left-wing counterparts due to high levels of Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Here, we aimed to extend prior work by testing how political values relate to COVID-19 discretionary behavioral intentions (i.e., prosocial and non-mandatory behaviors aimed at controlling the spread of the pandemic). Furthermore, we tested whether identification with the national group would influence the relationship between RWA and prosocial behavior. A cross-sectional study conducted on 350 Italian participants showed that right-wing political orientation had a negative effect on COVID-19 discretionary behavioral intentions via RWA. Furthermore, a moderated mediation model revealed that this effect was only significant for participants who are lowly identified with the national group. The results suggest that highlighting group belongingness might effectively motivate more conservative individuals to engage in prosocial behavior.

The Politics of Vaccine Hesitancy: An Ideological Dual-Process Approach

Ideological convictions are known to shape attitudes and behavior in various life domains. Based on existing psychological analyses of political ideology, we use an ideological dual-process approach to explain people’s vaccine hesitancy, which distinguishes between authoritarian (right-wing authoritarianism [RWA]) and hierarchical (social dominance orientation [SDO]) facets of conservatism as potential antecedents of vaccination attitudes. In a large international study performed in Germany (N = 1,210), Poland (N = 1,209), and the United Kingdom (N = 1,222), we tested the roles of SDO and RWA in predicting vaccination hesitancy, as well as cross-cultural universality of the pattern of relationships between political ideologies and attitudes toward vaccines. In all three countries, high SDO was associated with higher vaccine hesitancy, whereas high RWA was associated with lower vaccine hesitancy. These findings contribute to our understanding of the distinctive roles that these two facets of right-wing ideology might play in the domain of public health.

Ideologies and Censorship in the Discourse of Two Opinion Columns: A Critical Discourse Analysis

This article examines two opinion columns titled “Dilema Ético” (Ethical Dilemma) and “A Margarita” (To Margarita) from a Critical Discourse Analysis perspective. The relevance of the analysis of these columns is that they were written within a context of social crisis in Colombia where the political polarization has increased over the last years. The study intends to identify and analyze expressions used in the discourse of two columnists that represent opposite political ideologies and how this can enact constraints of freedom of speech. The analysis is conducted through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The findings show that the columnist identified with right-wing ideologies imposed herself on the columnist aligned with left-wing ideologies, thus restrict her freedom of speech.

„Wir Nichtgnostiker“: Die Hitler-Engelhardt-Parallele in Christian Krachts Imperium

Abstract In 2012 Georg Diez provoked a literary scandal with his review of Christian Kracht’s novel Imperium. Since then, almost ninety informed studies which show an ongoing academic interest in the book have been published. Many of these studies attempted to explain the apparently failing analogy between Hitler and Engelhardt that the novel claimed in an irritating manner. Nevertheless, none of them took an esoteric approach which Kracht himself suggested in an interview with Denis Scheck as a starting point for their analyses, although esoteric references seem to be an ignored constant in Kracht’s oeuvre since Tristesse Royale. Hence, by tracing this esoteric intertextuality in the whole of Kracht’s oeuvre and linking it to the references which Kracht makes to right-wing ideologies since Faserland, it will be shown that there actually does exist an analogy between Hitler and Engelhardt in Imperium which aims to deconstruct Hitler mythemes by ridiculizing Engelhardt. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated that the interrelations between Kracht’s texts create a rhizomatic network of intertextuality that dissolves the boarders between external references and self-references.

Taking Nativism to the Streets

In this article, I give an overview on nativist street protests in Germany from the early nineteenth century to the present from an historical perspective. In a preliminary remark, I will reflect on some recent developments in Germany, where nativist protest campaigns against immigration took place in the streets when voters were turning towards the populist radical right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). In the first section, I will outline an older tradition of anti-immigration protest in nineteenth and early twentieth century Germany, which is closely connected to modern antisemitism. In sections two and three, I will retrace how, from the late 1960s onward, the far right in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) discovered concerns about immigration in the German population, addressed them in protest campaigns and developed narratives to integrate such sentiments into a broader right-wing extremist ideology, itself deeply rooted in antisemitism. Studying nativism and the radical right from an actor-oriented perspective, I will focus on traditionalist movements, including the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) and neo-Nazi groups.

‘I can’t breathe’: the biopolitics and necropolitics of breath during 2020

ABSTRACT In the United States, 2020 was defined by mortality: the COVID-19 health pandemic on the one hand and by a racist pandemic (or a lasting endemic) on the other. In both pandemics, the phrase ‘I can’t breathe’ emerged as emblematic of these multifaceted crises. Within the United States, each pandemic was perceived and articulated quite differently by centrist and right-wing political ideologies. This article was stimulated by a political cartoon created by Nick Anderson. The diptych presents two scenes: one, symbolising Black Americaand a second representing White America . In examining the various attitudes towards the deadly health and racism crises, we outline four distinct approaches towards the understanding of biopower, sovereignty and the social contracts employed by each event. These approaches centre around issues of biopolitics and necropolitics. Whose breath ‘counts’ is in question here. Through social media analysis, we detail the mechanisms through which activism and its neutralisation were carried out and how the plea of ‘I can’t breathe’ became the politicised slogan for those who refused to limit economic activity, wear masks and curb social liberties to prevent the spread of the virus.

Double-pronged bias against black women: Sexism and racism (but not right-wing ideology) as unique predictors.

Double-pronged bias against black women: Sexism and racism (but not right-wing ideology) as unique predictors.

Varieties of Populist Attitudes and Their Link to Islamophobia in Switzerland

Abstract The aim of this article is to show whether distinct varieties of populist attitudes emerge within a society, and how they relate to citizens’ Islamophobic attitudes. The study is based on a representative survey conducted in Switzerland in 2019. We used latent class analysis and multinomial regression analyses to identify latent subgroups, yielding five classes of populist attitudes: direct democracy devotees, individuals with populist tendencies, moderate populists, radical anti-elite populists, and radical-universal populists. Compared with the direct democracy devotees class, members of the moderate and the radical-universal populists classes are significantly more likely to hold anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant attitudes and to be politically right-wing, while radical anti-elite populists are not associated with either anti-Muslim attitudes or a right-wing ideology.

Avoidance, rationalization, and denial: Defensive self-protection in the face of climate change negatively predicts pro-environmental behavior

Despite urgent need for climate action, denial of climate change and resulting absence of appropriate pro-environmental behavior are widespread. Interpretive (recognition of climate change as a problem but re-interpretation of its severity) and implicatory denial of climate change (recognition of climate change as a problem but denial of psychological, political, and moral implications) can be interpreted as self-protective strategies people use to protect the self in the face of threat. However, research has not integrated individual self-protective strategies into one comprehensive measure. The present research aimed at reviewing the existing literature and constructing the Climate Self-Protection Scale (CSPS) to make climate-relevant defensive self-protection measurable. In Study 1, N = 354 Germans responded to a pool of items. Using exploratory main axis analysis, we identified five factors, corresponding to the self-protective strategies rationalization of own involvement, avoidance, denial of personal outcome severity, denial of global outcome severity, and denial of guilt. Study 2 (N = 453 Germans) used confirmatory factor analysis to verify the five-factorial structure of the CSPS. Self-protective strategies were positively related with each other (except for avoidance and denial of guilt) and fit into a framework of interpretive (denial of global and personal outcome severity) and implicatory denial (rationalization, avoidance, denial of guilt). They related positively to male gender and right-wing political orientation, and negatively to various indicators of pro-environmentalism. This provides evidence of criterion and construct validity of the CSPS. In future research, the scale could be used as a tool to examine climate-relevant self-protective strategies further.

The Dark Side of Nonviolent Action?

Abstract Given a perceived qualitative and quantitative shift in the use of nonviolent action by rightwing populist actors in recent years, this article based on case studies from Austria (the Identitarian movement) and Indonesia (the 2/12 movement) discusses the methods, legitimacy, and effectiveness of the use of nonviolent action by right-wing populist movements. It finds that the use of nonviolent action by those actors is largely pragmatic and tactical and that it often is borderline in terms of remaining nonviolent. It further identifies that in line with right-wing populist ideology, rather than only addressing state authorities and elites, the movements addressees of the nonviolent action are often minority groups or people supporting minority groups. Developing a classification of nonviolent action in democracies (dissent, civil disobedience, political disobedience) the article further finds that right-wing use of nonviolent action has a tendency towards transcending normal dissent towards political disobedience.

Right-wing political orientation, national identification and the acceptance of immigrants and minorities

This paper examines the intriguing possibility that higher national identification commonly found among political conservatives can make them more, rather than less, accepting towards immigrants and minorities. This possibility is based on the theoretical reasoning that national attachment, net of national narcissism, provides a secure and stable sense of national belonging that forms a basis for a more open attitude towards outgroups. In two studies using three nationally representative samples from Germany and Netherlands (N = 4440), we show that stronger political conservatism predicts more positive outgroup attitudes and higher tolerance through stronger national attachment, specifically when partialling out national narcissism. These findings indicate that higher national identification from politically more conservative individuals can provide a confident basis for positive outgroup attitudes.

Constructing National Identity in the British Press: The Britain vs. Europe Dichotomy

Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) not only marks a crucial point in its history and politics, it also evidences growing concern over issues such as British self-determination and national identity. It is therefore revealing to trace the contrasting contemporary media representations of Britain and Europe within the context of the EU membership referendum of 2016 and migration within the EU. Immigration, in its broadest sense, provides a basis for ideological debates about the nature of identity and self-representation. This corpus-based study analyses the discursive techniques employed by the national press in its representation of both Britain and Europe during the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in 2016–2018. The data represents a specialised corpus containing 500 editorials, opinion pieces and news reports from five British newspapers: The Guardian (The Observer) and The Mirror represent left-wing ideology, while The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail and The Sun represent right-wing ideology. In terms of methodology, the study applies a mixed-method approach that combines corpus-based analysis with a further examination of wider contexts and discourses. As a first step, the analysis focuses on the left-hand collocates of the words Britain versus Europe, as well as on the right-hand collocates of the adjectives British versus European and EU. As a further step, a concordance analysis of the most salient and distinctive collocates is used to identify the discourses constructed around these terms; the differences between the left- and right-wing newspapers are then analysed, and finally, the findings are situated in a broader socio-political context. The study uses this combination of methods to reveal how the British press creates the Britain versus Europe dichotomy.

EL PARTIDO REPUBLICANO: EL PROYECTO POPULISTA DE LA DERECHA RADICAL CHILENA

During the last decade, the programmatic adaptation strategies of the Chilean right-wing were characterized by a gradual moderation and convergence with the left-wing. In recent years, this trend has been interrupted especially since the popular revolt of October 2019. Outside the center-right coalition, the emergence of Partido Republicano represents an update of the right-wing ideology that pushes for radicalism in economic, moral and social issues. Taking into account voices of leaders of this party, this article analyzes ideological and symbolic aspects, representative of a new radical populist right. This article concludes that this party renaturalizes issues displaced by the coalitions of the transitional period, representing an alternative for right-wing sectors that reject ideological moderation.

Strategic clustering in right-wing-populism? \u2018Green policies\u2019 in Germany and France

Past research pointed to the idea that right-wing ideology and climate-change skepticism are inherently linked. Empirical reality proves differently however, since right-wing populist parties are starting to adapt pro environmentalist stances. In this paper, we look into two prominent cases of diametrical diverging environmental strategies by right-wing-populist-parties: France’s Rassemblement National and Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland. In order convey this point, we use comparative qualitative content analysis and examine several decisive determinants regarding environmental strategies of right-wing populist parties. We argue that right-wing-populism is remarkably adaptable considering political opportunity structures, even clustering in ideologically diametrical versions of the same issue while each party coherently extends its policy-orientation to its respective alignment of the issue. That means, populism might be far less ideological than assumed in the past.

Explaining Conspiracy Beliefs and Scepticism around the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Public opinion on COVID‐19 provides new empirical evidence for the debate on the ideological contours of conspiracy theories. I report findings from a web survey in Greece where participants were recruited via paid advertising on Facebook and the study sample was adjusted for age, gender, education, domicile, and region of residence using a nationally representative reference sample. I find that beliefs about conspiracy theories are more correlated than the values associated with established political ideologies, and that conspiracy beliefs and scepticism about the pandemic are best explained by belief in unrelated political and medical conspiracy theories. No other demographic or attitudinal variable has such a strong influence, and the results are robust to different statistical specifications. In comparison, the effect of ideology measured by left‐right self‐placement is rather negligible and further moderated by trust in government. The results have implications for the strategies aimed at fighting disinformation during public health emergencies.

Implicit racism, colour blindness, and narrow definitions of discrimination: Why some White people prefer 'All Lives Matter' to 'Black Lives Matter'.

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has been called the 'civil rights issue of our time' (Holt & Sweitzer, 2020, Self and Identity, 19(, p. 16) but the All Lives Matter (ALM) movement swiftly emerged as an oppositional response to BLM. Prior research has investigated some predictors of support for ALM over BLM, but these predictors have thus far not included levels of racial bias or potentially relevant constructions of racism. This pre-registered, cross-sectional study (N=287) tested the degree to which White participants' support for ALM could be predicted using measures of racism (implicit and explicit) and ideological stances around the construction of 'racism' (that discourage the recognition of contemporary inequalities and discrimination). Using multiple regression analyses, we found that implicit racism, colour-blind ideology, and narrow definitional boundaries of discrimination positively predicted support for ALM over BLM. Explicit racism, collective narcissism, and right-wing political orientation did not predict ALM support, nor did any (2-way) interaction of these predictors. Implications for our understanding of the All Lives Matter movement are discussed.