Firm-Based Origins of Anti-System Politics

2025/10/31 by Matias Alberto Giannoni · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Dynamics (music) #Economic globalization #Economic sociology #Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism #Feeling #Globalization #Perception #Politics #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Social Policy and Reform Studies

paper · doi:10.1177/00104140251392522

published in Comparative Political Studies (SAGE Publishing)

openalex created_date 2025/10/31 · openalex publication_date 2025/10/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

This article proposes a firm-based theory to explain the rise of anti-system politics, emphasizing the influence of firms on political attitudes. It argues that economic factors like globalization and technological change are insufficient explanations without considering firm strategies as meso-level mediators of structural changes. Low-road employers, who offer low-quality jobs, create a mismatch between workers’ economic experiences and expectations, fostering feelings of unfairness and political dissatisfaction. Using a differences-in-differences design based on changes in Italian retail regulation, the study finds that the entry of large, low-road retailers boosts support for a radical right party, Lega Nord. A conjoint experiment surveying Italian private sector employees ( n = 1340) links low-road employment, within-firm inequality, and out-group employment opportunities to perceptions of unfairness and anti-system political attitudes. These results highlight the importance of firm-level dynamics in political analysis.

Citations

• The Trade Origins of Economic Nationalism: Import Competition and Voting Behavior in Western Europe
• Drinking Alone: Local Socio-Cultural Degradation and Radical Right Support—The Case of British Pub Closures
• Trade and Inequality: From Theory to Estimation
• It’s Where You Work: Increases in the Dispersion of Earnings across Establishments and Individuals in the United States
• Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe

Discussions

• Firm-Based Origins of Anti-System Politics: https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140251392522 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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