Which factors contribute to the electoral success of Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs)? We empirically investigate the relationship between the Austrian Freedom Party/FP (Freiheitliche Partei Österreich/FPÖ)'s electoral shares and the degree of population's socioeconomic polarization based on data for six regional and national elections and 118 municipalities in the state of Salzburg. Regional elections offer an excellent setting for conducting a thorough test of the argument that relative deprivation provides fertile ground for PRRPs. Our longitudinal study provides clear evidence that the more polarized the socio-economic structure in Salzburg's municipalities, the higher the share of FP supporters. This relationship holds over time and across types of elections: regional elections ('Landtagswahlen') and national elections ('Nationalratswahlen').

This article investigates to what extent citizens' conceptions of nation-state identity and European identity contribute to the support for populist radical parties along the left-right and the national level and sub-state divide. Drawing on data European Social Survey data, it employs multinomial and logistical regression models to examine the connection between territorial identity and support for majority nationalist Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRP) (9 cases), national-level Populist Radical Left Parties (PRLP) (4 cases), sub-national PRRP (3 cases), and subnational PRLP (3 cases). The overall findings confirm that nationstate identity and European identity have independent and significant effects. In several of the cases, a strong nation-state identity is positively related to support for (a) majority nationalist PRRP. A (negative) European identity is a central characteristic throughout the sample of majority nationalist PRRP and present in every single case. Sub-state PRRP supporters reject nation-state identity and, interestingly, in one case also European identity more than do other partisans. Identity effects, especially a negative nation-state identity, were present among PRLP supporters too. However, the evidence points to significantly less coherence.

Socioeconomic resources are important predictors of electoral participation, yet to understand their impact, we argue it is essential to examine the interaction of income dissatisfaction (egocentric dimension) with someone’s view of societal conditions (sociotropic dimension). Drawing on pooled national election surveys, we find that deprivation indeed depresses voting, but more importantly also that there is significant variation among those who experience economic difficulties: those who disconnect their personal misfortune from broader grievances are significantly more likely to abstain (Relative Power Hypothesis), while embedding one’s situation in a context of societal disparities leads to a desire for change and participation levels nearly as high as among the better off (Conflict Hypothesis). Our findings speak to inequality and turnout research but also have direct political implications, as it seems that responsiveness to campaigns focused on distributional injustices hinges on voters’ perception of themselves in relation to society.

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