Tuesday Seminar – 13 October

Economic Risks within the Household and Voting for the Radical Right
Tarik Abou-Chadi (University of Zurich)
Thomas Kurer (University of Zurich)

This article investigates how unemployment risk within households affects voting for the radical right. Recent advances in the literature demonstrate the role of latent economic threats for understanding the support of radical right parties. We build on these studies and analyze economic risks as a determinant of radical right voting. Crucially, we do not treat individuals as atomistic but investigate households as a crucial context moderating economic risks. Combining large-scale labor market data with comparative survey data, we confirm the relationship between economic risk and support for radical right parties but demonstrate that this direct effect is strongly conditioned by household risk constellations. Voting for the radical right is not only a function of a voters’ own but also their partner’s risk. We provide additional evidence on the extent to which these effects are gendered and on the mechanisms linking household risk and party choice. Our results imply that much of the existing literature on individual risk exposure underestimates the impact on political behavior due to the neglect of multiplier effects within households. 

Contact Semih Çakır if you would like to participate in the seminar.

This content has been updated on 12 October 2020 at 11 h 21 min.