The missing Link - Assessing state redistribution capacity to understand the relationship between economic inequality and support for European radical right and left parties

Income inequality is a major driver of the growth of radical parties on both the left and right, as it exacerbates citizens' economic insecurities. However, few studies have explored how welfare policies from Member states of the European Union (EU) can help reduce these economic grievances...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Padilla Galviz, Erick Stivens, Cantó, Joel, Arregui, Javier
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/59673
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/59673
http://dx.doi.org/10.5565/rev/quadernsiee.50
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Welfare policies
Welfare state
Redistribution
Radical right
Radical left
Descripción
Sumario:Income inequality is a major driver of the growth of radical parties on both the left and right, as it exacerbates citizens' economic insecurities. However, few studies have explored how welfare policies from Member states of the European Union (EU) can help reduce these economic grievances by containingincome inequalities thereby affecting the support towards radical alternatives. In this article, we aim to understand how redistribution affects radical support. We argue that redistribution policies reducethe economic insecurities caused by income inequalities, and thus, the electoral support for radical political platforms is also reduced. To test this hypothesis, we performed multinomial regression models using the European Social Surveydata from 17 countries over a period of more than a decade. Our findings reveal that redistribution reduces radical voting, but only for the radical right. We contribute to the literature on welfare policies and radical support by looking at the main welfare policy outcome: redistribution. Our results highlight the importance of redistributive policies in reducing radical right support in the EU, providing valuable insights for policymaking at the European level.