Does System Justification Promote Establishment Voting? Mainstream Politics in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Throughout Europe and North America, mainstream political parties have ceded electoral support to antiestablishment parties from the far left and far right. We investigate the hypothesis that individual differences in system justification-the psychological tendency to defend and justify the overarching social system-would be negatively associated with antiestablishment voting, even among citizens who would otherwise be inclined to support radicalism. In three large, nationally representative surveys conducted in France (N = 14,432), Germany (N = 1,168), and the United Kingdom (N = 2,337), we observed that system justification was positively associated with voting for establishment parties and negatively associated with antiestablishment voting. System justification was associated with reduced support for antiestablishment parties on the right and left-even among respondents who were high on ethnic intolerance, opposition to the European Union, economic distress, and support for income redistribution. Thus, all other things being equal, system-justification tendencies reinforce political moderation, establishment voting, and therefore social stability.

The mismeasure of culture: When measurement invariance requirements hinder social-psychological research

“…Conversely, countries in which extreme responding was more prevalent exhibited lower levels of system justification. These patterns are theoretically interpretable and consistent with other evidence based on studies of public opinion (e.g., see Langer et al, 2023).…”

“…A useful tool in this body of research is the General System Justification (GSJ) Scale, initially developed to gauge levels of confidence in the legitimacy of the overarching social system within the U.S. population (Kay & Jost, 2003). The scale found unexpected global application in international surveys and national polls conducted in dozens of countries (e.g., Badaan et al, 2020;Bahamondes et al, 2022;Brandt et al, 2020;Butz et al, 2017;Cichocka & Jost, 2014;Jost, 2020;Langer et al, 2023;Osborne & Sibley, 2013;Vargas-Salfate et al, 2018).…”

Finding (dis‐)advantaged system justifiers: A bottom‐up approach to explore system justification theory

“…Further, justifying prevailing systems has many implications for political attitudes and behaviours. System justification attitudes are associated with high trust in institutions (Cichocka & Jost, 2014; Hunyady, 2018; Intawan & Nicholson, 2018; Jost et al., 2003), support for established political parties and candidates (Langer et al., 2022; Satherley et al., 2022), less support of system‐challenging movements (e.g., Occupy Wall Street, Jost, 2019), and more support for conservative and/or right‐wing ideologies (e.g., Jost et al., 2004).…”