How Big of a Challenge to Democracy are Far-Right Parties?

• In Event: Perceptions of Political Parties and Their Effects on Public Opinion

Abstract

Far-right parties are present in most advanced democracies. They have been extensively studied. However, only a small number of studies have considered their influence on citizens’ attitudes. If far-right parties influence citizens’ attitudes instead of simply articulating them, they constitute a significantly greater challenge to democracy. In this paper, I leverage panel studies from Austria, France, Germany, Sweden, the United States, and the United Kingdom and use a differences-in-differences design to assess the influence of far-right parties’ emergence on citizens’ attitudes. I consider citizens' policy preferences, their levels of affective polarization, and their support for democracy.

Author

• Eric Guntermann, University of California, Berkeley