Why Right Populists Beat Left Populists

• In Event: Extreme Parties and Positions

Abstract

Scholars tend to agree that populism is catalyzed by elite driven political change angrily opposed by some portion of the public. In recent years, this change has taken two forms, neoliberal economics that drive left wing populism and the progressive social transformations that drive right populism. Yet right populists have consistently outperformed left populists in advanced democracies. Why? We argue that the demand-side distribution of populist resentment explains this disparity. Powerful elements of traditionally right electorates rebel against both components of elite driven change, while left wing electorates tend to embrace social progressivism. This makes it easier for right populists to win intra-party struggles against mainstream right factions. At the same time, right populist resentments rooted in cultural change are both harder to mitigate using policy tools, and more likely to cause sustained anger than economic dis-satisfaction in conditions of relative economic prosperity often experienced by most advanced industrial democracies.

Authors

• Daniel Markovits, Columbia University

• Brandon Van Dyck, Lafayette College