Automation and Populism: Evidence from Survey Experiments in Four Countries

• In Event: Political Ideologies and Polarization

Abstract

Modern economies are beginning to experience large-scale labour disruption through a new wave of automation and artificial intelligence (AAI). While previous waves of automation were largely concentrated in manufacturing, the present wave will affect more occupations and income levels. Previous waves of dislocation have underwritten support for populist parties. What role might AAI play in expanding support for populist politics? In this paper, we use a series of novel survey experiments fielded in four liberal market economies – Canada, the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom – to examine how economic dislocation and anxiety associated with AAI, as compared to other labour market shocks, can animate support for populist politics and policies, including nativism, economic isolationism, and welfare chauvinism. This paper makes two contributions to the fast-growing literature on the political consequences of automation. First, by running experiments in four advanced economies, we provide cross-national experimental evidence of relationships that to date have primarily only been examined using observational data. Second, by separately measuring distinct constitutive elements of right-wing politics – including populism, ethno-nationalism, and authoritarianism (Bonikowski 2017) – we disentangle how each component structures perceptions of, and preferred policy responses to, AAI-related economic dislocation.

Authors

• Bart Bonikowski, New York University

• Sophie Borwein, Simon Fraser University

• Blake Lee-Whiting, University of Toronto

• Peter John Loewen, University of Toronto