The threat of social decline: income inequality and radical right support

Abstract

Income inequality and radical right parties have both been on the rise in Western democracies, yet few studies explore the linkages between the two -despite prominent arguments about voters feeling 'left behind'. We argue that rising inequality not only intensifies relative deprivation, but also signals a potential threat of social decline, as gaps in the social hierarchy widen. Hence, voters higher up in the social hierarchy may turn to the radical right to defend existing social boundaries. Using International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) data from 14 OECD countries over three decades, we find that rising income inequality increases the likelihood of radical right support -most pronouncedly among individuals with high subjective social status and lower-middle incomes. Adding to evidence that the threat of decline, rather than actual deprivation, pushes voters towards the radical right, we highlight income inequality as the crucial factor conditioning perceived threats from a widening social hierarchy.

When good news backfires: Feelings of disadvantage in the Corona crisis

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How to study the populist radical right and the welfare state?

“…Drawing on individual-level panel data, Kurer (2020) comes to a similar conclusion in that the relative decline in the social hierarchy makes (male) routine workers susceptible to the nativist platforms of PRRPs. This position is in line with Engler and Weisstanner (2021) who find that growing income inequality creates a fear of social decline among previously dominant political groups -individuals with high subjective social status and lower-middle incomes -, which have turned into an important electorate of PRRPs. What these studies suggest is that the threat of decline in social status, rather than actual outcomes of decline (e.g.…”

Automation and the future of the welfare state: basic income as a response to technological change?

“…It is no coincidence that this distinction between actual and potential decline features prominently on the research agenda about the consequences of economic changes for radical right party support (Gidron and Hall 2017;Kurer and Palier 2019;Engler and Weisstanner 2020;Kurer 2020), whereas actual job loss moves voters to the left (Wiertz and Rodon 2019). Our study contributes to this debate by showing that individuals whose job is at risk of being automated do not view a universal basic income as a viable remedy.…”