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

Mealy, Dominic LU (2018) EKHM52 20171
Department of Economic History
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 the... (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
Mealy, Dominic LU
supervisor
organization
course
EKHM52 20171
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
radical right, social democracy, manufacturing decline, automation, regional variation
language
English
id
8938263
date added to LUP
2018-04-03 12:56:22
date last changed
2018-04-03 12:56:22
@misc{8938263,
  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 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}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Revolt of the ‘Left Behinds’? Regional Manufacturing Employment and the Vote Share of European Social Democratic and Radical Right Parties.}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}