By Jessica McCann
Welcome to Working Papers of the Week! Our goal is to
highlight the valuable and interesting research Kennedy School faculty members
are doing here and abroad by featuring new working papers recently uploaded to
the site.
This week in working papers:
Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of Populism:
Economic Have-Nots and Cultural Backlash
Inglehart, Ronald, and Pippa
Norris, August 2016
Abstract: Rising support for populist parties has
disrupted the politics of many Western societies. What explains this
phenomenon? Two theories are examined here. Perhaps the most widely-held view
of mass support for populism -- the economic insecurity perspective--emphasizes
the consequences of profound changes transforming the workforce and society in
post-industrial economies. Alternatively, the cultural backlash thesis suggests
that support can be explained as a reaction against cultural changes that
threaten the worldview of once-predominant sectors of the population. To
consider these arguments, Part I develops the conceptual and theoretical
framework. Part II of the study uses the 2014 Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES)
to identify the ideological location of 268 political parties in 31 European
countries. Part III compares the pattern of European party competition at
national-level. Part IV uses the pooled European Social Survey 1-6 (2002-2014)
to examine the cross-national evidence at individual level for the impact of
the economic insecurity and cultural values as predictors of voting for
populist parties. Part V summarizes the key findings and considers their
implications. Overall, we find consistent evidence supporting the cultural
backlash thesis.
To read the
full working paper, click here.
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