Extreme right‐wing voting in Western Europe

TLDR

The study aims to explain extreme right‑wing voting in EU and Norway from micro and macro perspectives. The authors employ a multidisciplinary multilevel model combining individual social background, public opinion, country‑level statistics, and expert survey data from 49,801 respondents to explain extreme right‑wing voting. Cross‑national variation in extreme right‑wing support is driven mainly by public attitudes toward immigration and democracy, the share of non‑Western residents, and the parties’ own characteristics. Abstract.

Abstract

Abstract. In this study we explain extreme right‐wing voting behaviour in the countries of the European Union and Norway from a micro and macro perspective. Using a multidisciplinary multilevel approach, we take into account individual‐level social background characteristics and public opinion alongside country characteristics and characteristics of extreme right‐wing parties themselves. By making use of large‐scale survey data (N = 49,801) together with country‐level statistics and expert survey data, we are able to explain extreme right‐wing voting behaviour from this multilevel perspective. Our results show that cross‐national differences in support of extreme right‐wing parties are particularly due to differences in public opinion on immigration and democracy, the number of non‐Western residents in a country and, above all, to party characteristics of the extreme right‐wing parties themselves.