Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Revolt of the ‘Left Behinds’? Regional Manufacturing Employment and the Vote Share of European Social Democratic and Radical Right Parties.

Mealy, Dominic LU (2018)
Abstract
In recent years radical right parties have gained electoral strength across Europe,
while the vote share of social democratic parties has declined. Using regional data and two fixed effect models this study investigates the impact of manufacturing employment and a range of other economic and demographic variables on the vote share of these parties in both national and European parliament elections from 2000-2014. The findings suggest significant cross-national variation in the influence of these factors. The results show a positive relationship between manufacturing employment and the social democratic vote share in Germany and evidence of a similar influence in Austria. They furthermore suggest a negative influence of this factor on... (More)
In recent years radical right parties have gained electoral strength across Europe,
while the vote share of social democratic parties has declined. Using regional data and two fixed effect models this study investigates the impact of manufacturing employment and a range of other economic and demographic variables on the vote share of these parties in both national and European parliament elections from 2000-2014. The findings suggest significant cross-national variation in the influence of these factors. The results show a positive relationship between manufacturing employment and the social democratic vote share in Germany and evidence of a similar influence in Austria. They furthermore suggest a negative influence of this factor on the vote share of radical right parties in Finland and Sweden. Beyond the influence of industrial dynamics, no evidence was found to support the hypothesis that economic grievances are behind these electoral trends. Some evidence was found for a positive influence of immigration on the radical right vote in Sweden and France. The influence of university education and age varies considerably between countries, suggesting that generalisations of radical right voters as older and less well educated are unfounded. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
supervisor
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Radical right parties, Social Democracy, Manufacturing, Automation, Regional variations
pages
98 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
029d3beb-7da2-4dda-af90-a7985ec442eb
alternative location
http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=8938263&fileOId=8938264
date added to LUP
2020-12-28 19:19:53
date last changed
2021-01-07 09:28:37
@misc{029d3beb-7da2-4dda-af90-a7985ec442eb,
  abstract     = {{In recent years radical right parties have gained electoral strength across Europe,<br/>while the vote share of social democratic parties has declined. Using regional data and two fixed effect models this study investigates the impact of manufacturing employment and a range of other economic and demographic variables on the vote share of these parties in both national and European parliament elections from 2000-2014. The findings suggest significant cross-national variation in the influence of these factors. The results show a positive relationship between manufacturing employment and the social democratic vote share in Germany and evidence of a similar influence in Austria. They furthermore suggest a negative influence of this factor on the vote share of radical right parties in Finland and Sweden. Beyond the influence of industrial dynamics, no evidence was found to support the hypothesis that economic grievances are behind these electoral trends. Some evidence was found for a positive influence of immigration on the radical right vote in Sweden and France. The influence of university education and age varies considerably between countries, suggesting that generalisations of radical right voters as older and less well educated are unfounded.}},
  author       = {{Mealy, Dominic}},
  keywords     = {{Radical right parties; Social Democracy; Manufacturing; Automation; Regional variations}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{09}},
  title        = {{Revolt of the ‘Left Behinds’? Regional Manufacturing Employment and the Vote Share of European Social Democratic and Radical Right Parties.}},
  url          = {{http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=8938263&fileOId=8938264}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}