Towards a better understanding of the social dynamics that explain support for radical politics

Recent years have seen an increase in so called ‘radical politics’. Both at the left and right end of the political continuum ‘radical’ political parties have emerged and gained sustained electoral success. This project focuses on the long-term societal dynamics that may explain the rise of phenomena such as populism, radical right/left voting and nativism. More specifically, we aim to focus on the social origins of feelings of societal alienation and marginalization. Such feelings are often interpreted as an indication of a lack of social integration of specific groups. That general argument, however, needs further specification. Informed by a social identity perspective, we aim to answer the following question: to what extent does the support for radical politics result from the difficulties of finding a positive social identity or even experiencing social stigma among specific groups (e.g. the less educated, the working class, etc.)? And what, then, determines the difference between support for radical right vs. left politics? To answer these questions, different methodologies can be used:

• Existing large-scale survey projects like the ESS, EVS and ISSP provide indicators of feelings of alienation and marginalization and voting behavior.
• Qualitative in-depth interviews allow to get a better grip on the lived of experience of voters for radical parties.
• Population based experiments enable to test the causal pathways in the theoretical model that is developed.

This project aligns with an existing research line that involves scholars from different universities. Potential candidates are asked to contact us to further develop a full-fletched research program.  

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