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Embracing populist rhetoric, an anti-immigration platform and the reversal of the Islamization of western societies, several European extreme right parties have attracted numerous votes over the past two decades. This trend is particularly visible in Austria, where the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ ) and the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ ) won almost a third of all votes nationwide in 2008. What explains this outpouring of popular support for the Austrian extreme right? Using pooled time-series analysis of all 121 administrative districts (Bezirke) for all post 1990 general elections as well as all 43 political districts (Regionalwahlkreise) for the same period, we examine eight district-level structural indicators, which are commonly associated with extreme right-wing support: center right vote, turnout, unemployment, number of foreigners, population density, percentage of single parent households and a dummy variable for Carinthia, as well as the vote for the moderate left. We find that the extreme right gains are related to the poorer performance of center parties (especially the right) and, to a lesser degree, high voter turnout. Geographically, the extreme right support is highest in more rural areas that have fewer immigrants and high social cohesion.

This article holistically evaluates the impact of developmental aid on economic growth. Although most scholars find that aid has no direct impact on economic development (for example, Easterly 2001) and some even question the value of aid altogether (Moyo 2009), we highlight that these claims are premature and unsupported by empirical evidence. While our structural equation model confirms that there is no direct impact of aid on growth, we find that aid has an indirect positive effect on economic development. Developmental aid leads to a decrease in a country's level of corruption, which then positively affects growth. The implications of this finding are that most aid is effective in that it leads to better governing practices and more transparency. These improved governing practices then positively impact a country's level of development.RÉ SUMÉ Cet article évalue globalement l'impact de l'aide au développement sur la croissance économique. Bien que la plupart des spécialistes (par exemple Easterly, 2001) montrent que l'aide n'a pas d'impact direct sur le développement économique et certains (par exemple, Moyo. 2009), en questionnent même sa valeur, nous devons souligner que ces allégations sont sous-développées et non basées sur des preuves empiriques. Bien que notre modèle d'équation structurelle confirme qu'il n'y a pas d'impact direct de l'aide sur la croissance, nous constatons que l'aide a un effet positif indirect sur le développement économique. L'aide au développement mène à une diminution du niveau de la corruption d'un pays, ce qui a ensuite une influence positive sur la croissance. Les implications de ces résultats sont que l'aide, dans la plupart des cas, est efficace dans le cas où elle conduit à de meilleures pratiques de gouvernance et à une plus grande transparence en général. L'amélioration de ces pratiques de gouvernance a ensuite un impact positif sur le niveau du développement d'un pays.

Many studies on right-wing extremist parties have focused on socio-economic and structural factors to determine why citizens vote for the extreme right. However, no analysis has yet solicited the opinions of elected officials of non-far-rightist parties on relevant factors related to support for extremist parties. Based on a survey of 30 members of the National Assembly, the Senate and the European Parliament, this paper engages in this quest and compares politicians' opinions on indicators such as a (perceived) loss of French national identity, immigration and variables related to the presence of foreigners such as crime and unemployment, with those of the general public. This research goal is to find out whether there are discrepancies between elected politicians of non-rightist parties and the general public. The results highlight some contradictions. Politicians perceive, on average, a loss of national identity as the least important indicator and illegal immigration as the most pressing factor for why people turn to the FN. This is at odds with the perception of the general public, who, unlike politicians, identify a loss of national identity as critical.

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