The Working Class and Support for the Radical Right : a Critical Perspective

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_EF78733F9B91
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Article: article from journal or magazin.
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Publications
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Title
The Working Class and Support for the Radical Right : a Critical Perspective
Journal
Les Cahiers de l’IEP/ IEP Working Paper Series
Author(s)
Gottraux Philippe, Péchu Cécile
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2021
Number
78
Language
english
Abstract
Scholarship in political science usually attributes a pivotal, or even exclusive, role to the working class in the progress of the radical right in Europe in recent years. This paper discusses the link between working class and radical right bearing on the case of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) with a focus on its electorate and activists’ support. Using post-electoral survey data and in-depth interviews with activists, it develops two critical arguments. The first is that support for the radical right is interclassist and based on various types of social and political rationales. The second argument is that a significant proportion of the working class does not support the SVP. Consequently class position is not the key determinant of support for the radical right. The paper argues that it is necessary to take into account a plurality of factors liable to bear on political behaviour. These factors can be endogenous (e.g. the political socialization and social trajectories of the actors) or exogenous (such as mobilizing sociability networks, political offer, and context). Studies on the radical right would gain by incorporating these various determinants of political behaviour. This requires going beyond monocausal explanations of support for the radical right, and allows to put into perspective explanations for support of the SVP in terms of frustration and economic deprivation often present in scholarship
Keywords
Radical right, working class, political behavior, Switzerland
Create date
25/01/2022 15:30
Last modification date
26/01/2022 7:13
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