The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Meta-Analysis of Structural Factors
| Date | 01 February 2019 |
| Author | Abdelkarim Amengay,Daniel Stockemer |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929918777975 |
| Published date | 01 February 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929918777975
Political Studies Review
2019, Vol. 17(1) 30 –40
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929918777975
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The Radical Right in Western
Europe: A Meta-Analysis of
Structural Factors
Abdelkarim Amengay and
Daniel Stockemer
Abstract
In this meta-analysis, we summarize the results of 48 peer-reviewed articles on the radical right-
wing vote in Western Europe. These results come from 48 peer-reviewed articles published from
January 1990 until October 2017. We use the following inclusion criteria, the selected articles
must focus on Western Europe, they must have the vote share of one or several radical right-wing
parties as the dependent variable, and at least one structural variable as the independent variable.
We find that more than 20 different structural variables have been tested. Most of them, like
unemployment, reflect mitigate results in explaining the electoral support for radical right-wing
parties. For others, like immigration, the statistical significance and direction of the relationship
seem to be highly dependent on the type of proxies used. In fact, only a few variables, such as
crime rates and the district magnitude seem to have a consistent effect on the vote share for
radical right-wing parties.
Keywords
radical wing parties, structural factors, meta-analysis, Western Europe
Accepted: 28 April 2018
Introduction
Since the 1980s, the analysis of the electoral performances of radical right-wing parties
(RWPs) has become a fertile field of study. Two types of approaches have dominated: (1)
individual-level studies that aim at identifying personal characteristics of these parties’ vot-
ers such as their sociodemographic profiles, psychological features, and attitudes (e.g.
Arzheimer, 2008, 2009; Mayer, 2002). Second, and this will be the focus of this article,
structural level studies evaluate the impact of structural/context-related factors (e.g. Betz,
1993; Golder, 2003). Thus, for more than 30 years, quantitative scholars have tested a broad
range of structural factors, including, but not limited to, economics such as employment
School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Corresponding author:
Daniel Stockemer, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
Email: dstockem@uottawa.ca
777975PSW0010.1177/1478929918777975Political Studies ReviewAmengay and Stockemer
research-article2018
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