Globalization and populism in Europe

Arbeitspapier

Recent micro-level studies have suggested that globalization - in particular, economic globalization - breeds political polarization and populism. This study examines if those results generalize by examining the country-level association between vote shares for European populist parties and economic globalization. Using data on vote share for 267 right-wing and left-wing populist parties in 33 European countries 1980-2016, and globalization data from the KOF-institute, we find no evidence of a positive association between economic globalization and populism. In many cases, the partial correlation is significantly negative. EU-membership is associated with 5 to 10 percentage units larger vote shares for right-wing populism in both random and fixed effects models.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IFN Working Paper ; No. 1304

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Capitalist Systems: Political Economy
• Subject: Globalization ; Populism ; Trade

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bergh, Andreas ; Gustafsson, Anders
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)
• (where): Stockholm
• (when): 2019

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/210945
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET