2025/12/21 by Atle Haugsgjerd, Jonas Linde, Ruben Mathisen · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #German legal, social, and political studies #European Union Policy and Governance
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/13501763.2025.2601295
This paper examines how political representation of the populist radical right (PRR) in Europe affects citizens’ satisfaction with democracy. Earlier research provides conflicting expectations: Some studies view PRR parties as vehicles of discontent, others as correctives to the waning representational function of mainstream parties. To examine the short- and long-term effects of PRR representation on political support, we apply recent panel-data methods to a dataset on PRR representation and satisfaction with democracy in Europe spanning five decades (1973–2020). The analysis shows that PRR inclusion in government has a positive effect on satisfaction with democracy. Additional individual-level analyses, using 11 rounds of the European Social Survey reveal that the positive net effect of PRR inclusion stems from rising satisfaction not only among PRR voters but also among conservatives and Christian democrats, while having no significant negative impact on most left-leaning voters.