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

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Ressource 1Télécharger: Cahier IEP n. 78 - Gottraux-Péchu.pdf (243.32 [Ko])
Etat: Public
Version: Final published version
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ID Serval
serval:BIB_EF78733F9B91
Type
Article: article d'un périodique ou d'un magazine.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Titre
The Working Class and Support for the Radical Right : a Critical Perspective
Périodique
Les Cahiers de l’IEP/ IEP Working Paper Series
Auteur⸱e⸱s
Gottraux Philippe, Péchu Cécile
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
2021
Numéro
78
Langue
anglais
Résumé
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
Mots-clé
Radical right, working class, political behavior, Switzerland
Création de la notice
25/01/2022 16:30
Dernière modification de la notice
26/01/2022 8:13
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