IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v13y2023i5p110-d1132713.html

Explaining the Populist Right in the Neoliberal West

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Joppke

    (Institute of Sociology, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland)

Abstract

With the 2016 double shock of Brexit and Trump, the populist right has become a game-changing force on both sides of the North Atlantic. A proper explanation needs to combine political, economic, and cultural elements. Qua populism, the populist right addresses a political condition, which is neoliberalism’s endemic democracy deficit. However, the illiberal democracy that populists advocate is not a cure for it. Cleavage theory in the Lipset–Rokkan tradition sheds light on the rightist orientation and the nationalist content of this populism. The main explanatory challenge remains the combination of economic and cultural factors in the rise of populism. In economic respect, middle-class decline under a neoliberal order seems to be the root cause of populism. However, its agenda is culture-focused, amounting to a nationalist opposition to immigration and cosmopolitanism. This “cultural deflection” is a persistent puzzle. The minimum to conclude is that one-sided accounts of populism in exclusively economic or cultural terms are unconvincing.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Joppke, 2023. "Explaining the Populist Right in the Neoliberal West," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:13:y:2023:i:5:p:110-:d:1132713
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/13/5/110/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/13/5/110/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Margit Tavits & Joshua D. Potter, 2015. "The Effect of Inequality and Social Identity on Party Strategies," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(3), pages 744-758, July.
    2. Amory Gethin & Clara Martínez-Toledano & Thomas Piketty, 2022. "Brahmin Left Versus Merchant Right: Changing Political Cleavages in 21 Western Democracies, 1948–2020," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 137(1), pages 1-48.
    3. Margaret Canovan, 1999. "Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 47(1), pages 2-16, March.
    4. Broz, J. Lawrence & Frieden, Jeffry & Weymouth, Stephen, 2021. "Populism in Place: The Economic Geography of the Globalization Backlash," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 464-494, February.
    5. Flaherty, Thomas M. & Rogowski, Ronald, 2021. "Rising Inequality As a Threat to the Liberal International Order," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 495-523, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Tobias Lenz & Besir Ceka & Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks & Alexandr Burilkov, 2023. "Discovering cooperation: Endogenous change in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 631-666, October.
    2. Zürn, Michael, 2022. "How Non-Majoritarian Institutions Make Silent Majorities Vocal: A Political Explanation of Authoritarian Populism," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 20(3), pages 788-807.
    3. Alessia Invernizzi & Aydin B. Yildirim & Arlo Poletti, 2026. "Differentiated protectionism in the European Union: The role of superstar exporters and fiscal capacity," European Union Politics, , vol. 27(1), pages 113-135, March.
    4. Zürn, Michael, 2024. "A Conclusion: The American Version of the Liberal Script, or How Exceptionalism Leads to Exceptionalism," EconStor Open Access Book Chapters, in: Polarization and Deep Contestations: the Liberal Script in the United States, pages 247-267, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    5. Enrique García-Viñuela & Nicolas Motz & Pedro Riera, 2024. "Voting for trade protectionist parties: Evidence from nine waves of the European Social Survey," European Union Politics, , vol. 25(3), pages 527-548, September.
    6. Ganga, Paula, 2023. "The Environmental Policies of Populist Radical Right Governments," Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Working Paper Series qt15q5794k, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California.
    7. Ali Umut Guler & Vishal Singh, 2026. "Polarized consumption," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 1-32, December.
    8. Catherine E De Vries & Simon Hix & Miriam Sorace, 2025. "Reforming supranational institutions: Insights from a conjoint experiment in 16 countries," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(4), pages 649-666, December.
    9. Marco Manacorda & Guido Tabellini & Andrea Tesei, 2022. "Mobile internet and the rise of political tribalism in Europe," CEP Discussion Papers dp1877, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    10. Guirola, Luis, 2025. "Economic expectations under the shadow of party polarization: Evidence from 135 government changes," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    11. Fraccaroli, Nicolò & Giovannini, Alessandro & Jamet, Jean-François & Persson, Eric, 2022. "Ideology and monetary policy. The role of political parties’ stances in the European Central Bank’s parliamentary hearings," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    12. Reinhard Heinisch & Oscar Gracia & Andrés Laguna-Tapia & Claudia Muriel, 2024. "Libertarian Populism? Making Sense of Javier Milei’s Political Discourse," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-27, November.
    13. Klaus Desmet & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Ömer Özak, 2022. "Is Secessionism Mostly About Income or Identity? A Global Analysis of 3,003 Subnational Regions," NBER Working Papers 30428, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Neil Lee & Cornelius Lipp, 2021. "Golfing with Trump. Social capital, decline, inequality, and the rise of populism in the US," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 14(3), pages 457-481.
    15. Jelle Koedam, 2021. "Avoidance, ambiguity, alternation: Position blurring strategies in multidimensional party competition," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(4), pages 655-675, December.
    16. Fernando Filgueiras & Pedro Palotti & Graziella G. Testa, 2023. "Complexing Governance Styles: Connecting Politics and Policy in Governance Theories," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    17. Lasco, Gideon & Curato, Nicole, 2019. "Medical populism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 1-8.
    18. Gradstein, Mark, 2024. "Social Status Inequality and Populism," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 434-444.
    19. Leonardo Cherici, 2025. "Inequality: from identity politics to policy polarization," DISEIS - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia internazionale, delle istituzioni e dello sviluppo dis2501, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimento di Economia internazionale, delle istituzioni e dello sviluppo (DISEIS).
    20. Jaewook Lee, 2026. "Pushed by markets, pulled by machines: Economic pressures and the backlash to the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 27(1), pages 3-31, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jsoctx:v:13:y:2023:i:5:p:110-:d:1132713. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.