IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v54y2016i4p999-1016.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Structural Data on Immigration or Immigration Perceptions? What Accounts for the Electoral Success of the Radical Right in Europe?

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Stockemer

Abstract

Targeting immigrants as a threat to employment, security and cultural cohesion, the radical right has averaged 10 percent of the vote in elections. What drives this vote? Are voters affected by the numbers of foreign‐born individuals in a geographical region, by negative perceptions about immigrants, or both? In this article, I entertain the possibility that it is not the number of foreigners but citizens’ perceptions about immigrants that explain individuals’ tendencies to vote for the radical right. To test this stipulation, I combine European Social Survey (ESS) data on individual perceptions of immigrants for more than 25,000 individuals with macro‐level data on the actual percentage of foreign‐born citizens across 200 European regions. Using a bivariate and multivariate framework, I highlight that it is only the individual perceptions of immigration indicator, and not the number of foreign‐born citizens, that is positively related to higher support for radical right‐wing parties.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Stockemer, 2016. "Structural Data on Immigration or Immigration Perceptions? What Accounts for the Electoral Success of the Radical Right in Europe?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 999-1016, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:54:y:2016:i:4:p:999-1016
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12341
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12341
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.12341?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gordon H. Hanson & Kenneth Scheve & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2007. "Public Finance And Individual Preferences Over Globalization Strategies," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 1-33, March.
    2. Steven A. Weldon, 2006. "The Institutional Context of Tolerance for Ethnic Minorities: A Comparative, Multilevel Analysis of Western Europe," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(2), pages 331-349, April.
    3. Bottazzi, Laura & Peri, Giovanni, 2003. "Innovation and spillovers in regions: Evidence from European patent data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 687-710, August.
    4. Brulhart, Marius & Traeger, Rolf, 2005. "An account of geographic concentration patterns in Europe," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 597-624, November.
    5. Robert Ford & Matthew J. Goodwin, 2010. "Angry White Men: Individual and Contextual Predictors of Support for the British National Party," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 58(1), pages 1-25, February.
    6. Borchardt,Knut, 1991. "Perspectives on Modern German Economic History and Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521363105.
    7. Robert Ford & Matthew J. Goodwin, 2010. "Angry White Men: Individual and Contextual Predictors of Support for the British National Party," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 58, pages 1-25, February.
    8. Borchardt,Knut, 1991. "Perspectives on Modern German Economic History and Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521368582.
    9. Rotte, Ralph & Steininger, Martin, 2008. "Crime, Unemployment, and Xenophobia? An Ecological Analysis of Right-Wing Election Results in Hamburg, 1986?2005," IZA Discussion Papers 3779, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fidrmuc, Jan & Hulényi, Martin & Tunalı, Çiğdem Börke, 2019. "Can money buy EU love?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Cengiz Erisen & Sofia Vasilopoulou, 2022. "The affective model of far‐right vote in Europe: Anger, political trust, and immigration," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 103(3), pages 635-648, May.
    3. Brandon Malloy & Zeynep Ozkok & Jonathan Rosborough, 2022. "The Impact of Immigration Attitudes on Voting Preferences: Evidence from the European Social Survey," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1825-1853, December.
    4. Wouter van der Brug & Eelco Harteveld, 2021. "The conditional effects of the refugee crisis on immigration attitudes and nationalism," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 227-247, June.
    5. Francesco Pagliacci & Luca Bonacini, 2022. "Explaining The Anti‐Immigrant Sentiment Through a Spatial Analysis: A Study of The 2019 European Elections in Italy," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 113(4), pages 365-381, September.
    6. Eddy SF Yeung, 2021. "Does immigration boost public Euroscepticism in European Union member states?," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(4), pages 631-654, December.
    7. Jäger, Julian, 2023. "Immigration and support for anti-immigrant parties in Europe," WiSo-HH Working Paper Series 76, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, WISO Research Laboratory.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hans Joachim Voth, 2000. "With a bang, not a whimper: Pricking Germany's "stock market bubble" in 1927 and the slide into depression," Economics Working Papers 516, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    2. Ritschl, Albrecht & Straumann, Tobias, 2009. "Business cycles and economic policy, 1914-1945: a survey," Economic History Working Papers 22402, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    3. Norbet Paddags, 1997. "The German Railways - The Economic and Political Feasibility of Fiscal Reforms During the Inflation of the Early 1920s," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _013, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    4. Jennings, Colin & Drinkwater, Stephen, 2012. "An Analysis of the Electoral Use of Policy on Law and Order by New Labour," SIRE Discussion Papers 2012-77, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    5. Voth, Hans-Joachim, 2002. "Why was Stock Market Volatility so High During the Great Depression? Evidence from 10 Countries During the Interwar Period," CEPR Discussion Papers 3254, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Robert MILLWARD, 2010. "Public enterprise in the modern western world: an historical analysis," Departmental Working Papers 2010-26, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    7. Melcher, Reinhold, 2018. "I’m still here. Elektorale Erfolgsbedingungen der NPD in Gemeinden Sachsens [I’m still here. Conditions of electoral success of the National Democratic Party of Germany in Saxon municipalities]," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 12(2), pages 365-397.
    8. Alan de Bromhead & Barry Eichengreen & Kevin H. O'Rourke, 2012. "Right-Wing Political Extremism in the Great Depression," NBER Working Papers 17871, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Chris Erl, 2021. "The People and The Nation: The “Thick” and the “Thin” of Right‐Wing Populism in Canada," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(1), pages 107-124, January.
    10. Michael Bordo & Harold James, 2015. "Capital Flows and Domestic and International Order: Trilemmas from Macroeconomics to Political Economy and International Relations," NBER Working Papers 21017, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Christ, Julian P., 2010. "Geographic concentration and spatial inequality: Two decades of EPO patenting at the level of European micro regions," Violette Reihe: Schriftenreihe des Promotionsschwerpunkts "Globalisierung und Beschäftigung" 32/2010, University of Hohenheim, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Evangelisches Studienwerk.
    12. Nicholas Dimsdale & N.H. Horsewood, 2004. "Unemployment and Real Wages in Weimar Germany," Economics Series Working Papers 2004-W56, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    13. Brian Burgoon & Sam van Noort & Matthijs Rooduijn & Geoffrey Underhill, 2018. "Radical Right Populism and the Role of Positional Deprivation and Inequality," LIS Working papers 733, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    14. Steven Webb, 2015. "Becoming an open democratic capitalist society: a two-century historical perspective on Germany’s evolving political economy," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 19-37, March.
    15. Giovanni B. Pittaluga & Elena Seghezza, 2012. "The role of Rentiers in the stabilization processes of the 1920s," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 16(2), pages 188-210, May.
    16. Stephen Drinkwater & Colin Jennings, 2017. "Expressive voting and two-dimensional political competition: an application to law and order policy by New Labour in the UK," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 79-96, March.
    17. Nicholas Dimsdale & N.H. Horsewood & A. van Riel, 2004. "Unemployment and Real Wages in Weimar Germany," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _056, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    18. Craig Johnson & Sunil Rodger, 2015. "Did Perception of the Economy Affect Attitudes to Immigration at the 2010 British General Election?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1214-1225, November.
    19. Helbling, Marc & Traunmüller, Richard, 2016. "How state support of religion shapes attitudes toward Muslim immigrants: New evidence from a sub-national comparison," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 49(3), pages 391-424.
    20. Jonna Rickardsson, 2021. "The urban–rural divide in radical right populist support: the role of resident’s characteristics, urbanization trends and public service supply," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 67(1), pages 211-242, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:54:y:2016:i:4:p:999-1016. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.