Globalization and populism in Europe

2020/11/19 by Andreas Bergh, Anders Kärnä · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Media Influence and Politics #Populism, Right-Wing Movements

paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s11127-020-00857-8

openalex publication_date 2020/11/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02

Abstract

Abstract Recent micro-level studies have suggested that globalization—in particular, economic globalization and trade with China—breeds political polarization and populism. This study examines whether or not those results generalize by examining the country-level association between vote shares for European populist parties and economic globalization. Using data on vote shares for 267 right-wing and left-wing populist parties in 33 European countries during 1980–2017, and globalization data from the KOF institute, we find no evidence of a positive association between (economic or other types of) globalization and populism. EU membership is associated with a 4–6-percentage-point larger vote share for right-wing populist parties.

Citations

• Do liberalization and globalization increase income inequality?
• International regimes, transactions, and change: embedded liberalism in the postwar economic order
• Does globalization affect growth? Evidence from a new index of globalization
• The file drawer problem and tolerance for null results.
• Immigration sceptics, xenophobes or racists? Radical right‐wing voting in six West European countries
• The Populist Zeitgeist
• Extreme right‐wing voting in Western Europe
• Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure
• Populism: A Very Short Introduction
• The Trade Origins of Economic Nationalism: Import Competition and Voting Behavior in Western Europe
• Economic Insecurity and the Causes of Populism, Reconsidered

Cited by

• The network dynamics of antiprejudice norms: A field experiment testing antiprejudice interventions in real groups
• What is neoliberalism really? A global analysis of its real-world consequences for development, inequality, and democracy
• Economic nationalism [wikipedia]

Related

• Predicting the rise of right-wing populism in response to unbalanced immigration
• Global crises and populism: the role of Eurozone institutions*
• Populism in election times: a comparative analysis of 11 countries in Western Europe
• The Trade Origins of Economic Nationalism: Import Competition and Voting Behavior in Western Europe
• Populist Parties in Germany, France, and the UK: Growing Support for a Radical Rejection of Globalization?