Young Populism Blood? Economic and Cultural Drivers of Populism among Cohorts

• In Event: Explaining Voters' Support for Populism

Abstract

Electoral research into the socio-demographic profile of populist radical right parties suggests high popularity amongst young people and first-time voters, and scholars indicate that radical right tends to mobilize support disproportionally amongst the youngest and oldest cohorts of the electorate. Younger voters are characterized by high electoral volatility, often do not yet have a clear partisan preference, and seem especially susceptible to support niches or new parties while displaying a lower loyalty to traditional parties.

We aim to assess what attracts young people to the radical right compared to other age groups. So far, the underlying factors for radical right party support amongst young voters have yet to be explored. By building on issue voting research, generational change, and cultural backlash theories, we theoretically and empirically investigate support for the populist radical right across generational cohorts. We focus on the differential explaining power across age groups of two main drivers of radical right support: socioeconomic and sociocultural drivers. For the socioeconomic drivers, we consider both objective and subjective socioeconomic factors. For the sociocultural drivers, we consider gender, climate, and migration attitudes which have been at the center of culture wars. We expect these drivers to relate differently to radical right support across age groups.

We rely on representative Flemish survey data (n = 2500) from 16-year-olds and older including questions on political attitudes and voting behavior. Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, has a large electoral support for the radical right party Vlaams Belang making it an excellent case study.

Authors

• Joke Matthieu, Universiteit Antwerpen

• Laura Jacobs, University of Leuven