From the Streets to the Voting Booth: The Electoral Effect of Grassroots Mobilization Against the Far Right

2024/01/01 by Francesco Colombo, Alessandro Ferrara, Elias Dinas +2 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Social Policy and Reform Studies

paper · doi:10.1093/poq/nfae039

Abstract

Abstract Is anti-far-right grassroots mobilization effective? Scholars studying the far right have focused extensively on the causes and consequences of far-right success but have paid little attention to what citizens and civil society can do to tackle this phenomenon. Focusing on the surge of Sardine (the Sardines), an anti-far-right social movement, during the 2020 Italian regional elections, we test whether grassroots mobilization is an effective tool to curb far-right parties’ electoral performance. Employing municipality-level data on electoral results, Sardines rallies, and far-right events, we exploit a difference-in-differences design to identify the effect of local exposure to Sardine mobilization on the municipal electoral performance of far-right parties. The results suggest that local exposure to a Sardines event has a strong negative effect on far-right electoral results.

Citations

• Ballots and Barricades: On the Reciprocal Relationship between Elections and Social Movements
• Competition Between Unequals: The Role of Mainstream Party Strategy in Niche Party Success
• Salience and Taxation: Theory and Evidence
• The Causal Effect of Radical Right Success on Mainstream Parties’ Policy Positions: A Regression Discontinuity Approach
• The Opinion-Mobilizing Effect of Social Protest against Police Violence: Evidence from the 2020 George Floyd Protests
• Does accommodation work? Mainstream party strategies and the success of radical right parties

Cited by

• How Confrontational Protest Shapes Public Opinion: Experimental Evidence from Climate Mobilization

Discussions

• In this research note we show how the anti-far-right movement Le Sardine managed to curb far-right electoral performance in Italy's 2020 regional elections. Using a diff-in-diff design, local exposu [bsky, 54 points, 1 comments]

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