Class Mobility and Far Right Party Support in Western Europe

• In Event: Mini-Conference on Politics in Post-industrial Societies V: Old and New Grievances and the Rising Appeal of Radical Parties

Abstract

How does social class affect far right party support? A large body of literature shows significant variations in the effect of class on far right party support across countries and across time. The far right’s electoral support base is particularly diverse and context dependent: parts of the working class are highly likely to support the far right in some cases, whereas lower middle-class individuals are the more important far right supporters in others. This article explains this puzzling variation by distinguishing empirically and theoretically between class location and class mobility. We argue that class location affects absolute deprivation whereas declining class mobility shapes relative deprivation. The combination of class location and mobility together shape the different forms of deprivation feeding far right party support. We analyse several waves of European Social Survey (ESS) data using a diagonal reference model, which is a well-established method in quantitative sociology literature on class mobility but has not yet been virtually applied to voting behaviour. Our findings show that both class origins and mobility matter, but in different ways. Heterogeneity analyses further reveal that these effects vary depending on other socio-demographic characteristics, most notably education and age. Taken together, these findings contribute to ongoing debates about the relative importance of class in the rise of the far right across Western Europe.

Authors

• Tim Vlandas, University of Oxford

• Alexi Gugushvili, University of Edinburgh

• Daphne Halikiopoulou, University of York