2025/09/02 by Håkon Sælen, Håkon Grøn Sælen, Aaron M. McCright · 1 voice · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Media Influence and Politics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/09644016.2025.2553951
Populism of the radical right is strongly associated with climate change denial and opposition to climate policy, but we lack understanding of why these two phenomena are linked. This article tests two alternative explanations presented by extant literature. A structuralist explanation argues that the link is spurious, as both are caused by perceived vulnerability to structural changes in the economy. In highlighting that the ideological nature of radical right populism is antithetical to climate policy, an ideological explanation posits that any apparent effect of structural changes on climate policy attitudes is mediated by radical right populist ideology. We present data from an original survey administered in Australia, Germany, Norway, and the United States that is designed to test the two hypotheses against each other. Two different structural equation modeling analyses provide greater support for the ideological explanation than the structuralist explanation.