Comparative European Politics

, Volume 13, Issue 5, pp 553–576 | Cite as

The demand side of support for radical right parties

  • Jason E Kehrberg
Original Article
First Online:

Abstract

This study examines the link between individual attitudes and voting for radical right parties in 16 European countries, using the European Social Survey (ESS). This study includes, in a single model, several different components of the radical right political platform in order to test which components are more strongly found among radical right voters. Using the initial assumption that the anti-immigrant message of radical right parties should be attractive to individuals with similar predispositions, I use the ESS to find evidence that radical right voters are attracted to these parties because of the political message of immigration attitudes and anti-democratic attitudes. Further, depending on the context, social conservatism is associated with radical right support. In sum, radical right support is based on multiple factors with immigration attitudes as the primary consideration, with populism and social conservatism playing a minor but significant role.

Keywords

radical right parties immigration political parties Western Europe Eastern Europe 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

I thank Richard Arnold, Emily Beaulieu, Adam Butz, Mark Peffley, Kirk Randazzo, Tom Rice, D. Stephen Voss, Justin Wedeking and the reviewers for their suggestions and comments on earlier drafts. Any errors were the contribution and responsibility of the author.

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Copyright information

© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jason E Kehrberg
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Political Science, Department of Health ScienceMuskingum UniversityNew ConcordUSA

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