Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T16:44:28.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Residential Constraints and the Political Geography of the Populist Radical Right: Evidence from France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2021

Pauliina Patana Open the ORCID record for Pauliina Patana [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What explains variation in populist radical right (PRR) support within Western democracies? Specifically, why is contemporary PRR support often and increasingly stronger in areas seemingly detached from the effects of globalization, transnationalism, or immigration, the key issues these parties emphasize? This study articulates a theory of residential constraints to deepen understanding of these spatial patterns. I hypothesize that when citizens are residentially constrained—that is, when their means of reacting to local conditions and “voting with their feet” are limited—they are more likely to support PRR parties. To test this claim, I use a multimethod research design and exploit both quantitative and qualitative evidence from France, an important case of long-standing and geographically divided PRR support. I demonstrate that the PRR performs well in areas where locals’ access to services and opportunities is compromised and where opportunities and incentives to relocate are blocked by residential constraints. Residential constraints thus generate a set of relative economic grievances and render them highly salient in localities that may otherwise appear unaffected by more objective hardships and structural decay.

Type
Special Section: Revisiting Populism
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , September 2022 , pp. 842 - 859
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Data replication sets are available in Harvard Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BMEGH1

References

Adler, David, and Ansell, Ben. 2019. “Housing and Populism.” West European Politics 43(2): 344–65.Google Scholar
Allport, G. 1954. The Nature of Prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Ansell, Ben, Hjorth, Frederik, Nyrup, Jacob, and Larsen, Martin Vinæs. 2021. “Sheltering Populists? House Prices and the Support for Populist Parties.” Working Paper.Google Scholar
Arzheimer, K. 2009. “Contextual Factors and the Extreme Right Vote in Western Europe, 1980–2002.” American Journal of Political Science 53(2): 259–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergman, Peter, Chetty, Raj, DeLuca, Stefanie, Hendren, Nathaniel, Katz, Lawrence F., and Palmer, Christopher. 2019. “Creating Moves to Opportunity: Experimental Evidence on Barriers to Neighborhood Choice.” Working Paper. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.Google Scholar
Betz, Hans-Georg. 2015. “The Revenge of the Ploucs: The Revival of Radical Populism under Marine Le Pen in France.” In European Populism in the Shadow of the Great Recession, edited by Kriesi, Hanspeter and Pappas, Takis S., 75–89. Colchester, UK: ECPR.Google Scholar
Biggs, M., and Knauss, S.. 2011. “Explaining Membership in the British National Party: A Multilevel Analysis of Contact and Threat.” European Sociological Review 28(5): 633–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloze, Gintautas, and Skak, Morten. 2016. “Housing Equity, Residential Mobility and Commuting.” Journal of Urban Economics 96: 156–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bon, Frédéric, and Cheylan, Jean-Paul. 1988. La France Qui Vote. Paris: FeniXX.Google Scholar
Bowyer, B. 2008. “Local Context and Extreme Right Support in England: The British National Party in the 2002 and 2003 Local Elections.” Electoral Studies 27(4): 611–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgoon, Brian, van Noort, Sam, Rooduijn, Matthijs, and Underhill, Geoffrey. 2019. “Positional Deprivation and Support for Radical Right and Radical Left Parties.” Economic Policy 34(97): 49–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnes, Nicholas, and Lupu, Noam. 2021. “The White Working Class and the 2016 Election.” Perspectives on Politics 19(1): 55–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavaillé, Charlotte, and Ferwerda, Jeremy. 2019. “How Distributional Conflict over In-Kind Benefits Generates Support for Anti-Immigrant Parties.” Working Paper.Google Scholar
CEVIPOF. 2012. “French National Election Study 2012.” 2012. https://www.enef.fr/.Google Scholar
CEVIPOF. 2017. “French National Election Study 2017.” 2017. https://www.enef.fr/.Google Scholar
Chan, Sewin. 2001. “Spatial Lock-In: Do Falling House Prices Constrain Residential Mobility?” Journal of Urban Economics 49(3): 567–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chou, Winston, and Dancygier, Rafaela. 2021. “Why Parties Displace their Voters: Gentrification, Coalitional Change, and the Demise of Public Housing.” American Political Science Review 115(2): 429–49.Google Scholar
Colantone, I., and Stanig, P.. 2018. “Global Competition and Brexit.” American Political Science Review 112(2): 201–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coffé, H., Heyndels, B., and Vermeir, J.. 2007. “Fertile Grounds for Extreme Right-Wing Parties: Explaining the Vlaams Blok’s Electoral Success.” Electoral Studies 26(1): 142–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cramer, Katherine J. 2016. The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crowder, Kyle, Hall, Matthew, and Tolnay, Stewart E.. 2011. “Neighborhood Immigration and Native Out-Migration.” American Sociological Review 76(1): 25–47.Google ScholarPubMed
Davezies, Laurent. 2012. La Crise Qui Vient: La Nouvelle Fracture Territoriale. Paris: Editions de Seuil.Google Scholar
Della Posta, D. 2013. “Competitive Threat, Intergroup Contact, or Both? Immigration and the Dynamics of Front National Voting in France.” Social Forces 92(1): 249–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dherbécourt, Clément. 2015. “La Géographie de l’ascenseur Social Français.” France Stratégie. Working Paper no. 2015–6.Google Scholar
Enos, Ryan D. 2017. The Space between Us: Social Geography and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Jocelyn, and Ivaldi, Gilles. 2020. “Contextual Effects of Immigrant Presence on Populist Radical Right Support: Testing the ‘Halo Effect’ on Front National Voting in France.” Comparative Political Studies 54(5): 823–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgerald, Jennifer. 2018. Close to Home: Local Ties and Voting Radical Right In Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ford, Robert, and Jennings, Will. 2020. “The Changing Cleavage Politics of Western Europe.” Annual Review of Political Science 23(1): 295–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frieden, Jeffry. 2018. “The Political Economy of the Globalization Backlash: Sources and Implications.” SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3355610.Google Scholar
Gallego, Aina, Buscha, Franz, Sturgis, Patrick, and Oberski, Daniel. 2016. “Places and Preferences: A Longitudinal Analysis of Self-Selection and Contextual Effects.” British Journal of Political Science 46(3): 529–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ganong, Peter, and Shoag, Daniel. 2017. “Why Has Regional Income Convergence in the U.S. Declined?” Journal of Urban Economics 102(C): 76–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gest, J. 2016. The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gidron, Noam, and Hall, Peter A.. 2017. “The Politics of Social Status: Economic and Cultural Roots of the Populist Right.” British Journal of Sociology 68(S1): S57–84.Google ScholarPubMed
Gidron, Noam, and Hall, Peter A.. 2020. “Populism as a Problem of Social Integration.” Comparative Political Studies 53(7): 1027–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaeser, Edward. 2011. Triumph of the City. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Golder, M. 2016. “Far Right Parties in Europe.” Annual Review of Political Science 19: 477–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gombin, Joël. 2015. “Le Changement Dans La Continuité—Géographies Électorales Du Front National Depuis 1992.” In Les Faux-Semblants Du Front National, 395–416. Paris: Presses de Sciences Po (PFNSP).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guilluy, Christophe. 2016. La France Périphérique: Comment on a Sacrifié Les Classes Populaires. Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar
Hall, Matthew and Kyle, Crowder. 2014. Native out-migration and neighborhood immigration in new destinations. Demography 51(6): 2179–202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hochschild, A. R. 2016. Strangers in their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Hopkins, D. 2010. “Politicized Places: Explaining Where and When Immigrants Provoke Local Opposition.” American Political Science Review 104(1): 40–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inchauste, Gabriela, Karver, Jonathan, Kim, Yeon Soo, and Jelil, Mohamed Abdil. 2018. Living and Leaving: Housing, Mobility and Welfare in the European Union. World Bank Report on the European Union. Washington, DC: World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
INSEE. 2017. “Mobilité Résidentielle: Évolution Au Cours Des Vingt-Cinq Dernières Années.” 2017. https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/2652079?sommaire=2652100.Google Scholar
INSEE. 2020. “Statistiques.” 2020. https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, H., and McGann, A.. 1995. The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Kriesi, H., Grande, Edgar, Lachat, Romain, Dolezal, Martin, Bornschier, Simon, and Frey, Timotheos. 2008. West European Politics in the Age of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurer, Thomas. 2020. “The Declining Middle: Occupational Change, Social Status, and the Populist Right.” Comparative Political Studies 53(10–11): 1798–1835.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Galès, Patrick, and Pierson, Paul. 2019. “‘Superstar Cities’ & the Generation of Durable Inequality.” Daedalus 148(3): 46–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Neil, Morris, Katy, and Kemeny, Thomas. 2018. “Immobility and the Brexit Vote.” Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 11(1): 143–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lubbers, M., Gijsberts, M., and Scheepers, P.. 2002. “Extreme Right-Wing Voting in Western Europe.” European Journal of Political Research 41(3): 345–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxwell, Rahsaan. 2019. “Cosmopolitan Immigration Attitudes in Large European Cities: Contextual or Compositional Effects?” American Political Science Review 113(2): 456–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, Nonna. 1992. “Presence of Immigrants and National Front Vote: The Case of Paris (1984–1989).” In Ethnic Politics and Civil Liberties, edited by Barker, L., 103–25. New York: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Mayer, Nonna. 2014. “The Electoral Impact of the Crisis on the French Working Class: More to the Right?” In Mass Politics in Tough Times: Opinions, Votes and Protest in the Great Recession, edited by Bartels, Larry and Bermeo, Nancy, 266–96. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNamara, Kathleen. 2017. “Explaining the New Class Cleavages: Geography, Post-Industrial Transformations and Everyday Culture.” SSRN. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3059222.Google Scholar
Mergier, A., and Fourquet, J.. 2011. Le Point de Rupture: Enquête Sur Les Ressorts Du Vote FN En Milieux Populaires. Paris: Fondation Jean Jaurès.Google Scholar
Ministry of Ecology. 2021. “Estimations UMR 1041 CESAER (AgroSup Dijon-INRAE) à Partir des Données SeLoger, Leboncoin, PAP.” https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/carte-des-loyers-indicateurs-de-loyers-dannonce-par-commune-en-2018/.Google Scholar
Ministry of the Interior. 2020. “Election présidentielle des 23 avril et 7 mai 2017.” https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/election-presidentielle-des-23-avril-et-7-mai-2017-resultats-definitifs.Google Scholar
Ministry of Territorial Cohesion. 2020. “Observatoire Des Territoires.” 2020. https://www.observatoire-des-territoires.gouv.fr/observatoire-des-territoires/en/node.Google Scholar
Minkenberg, Michael. 2000. “The Renewal of the Radical Right: Between Modernity and Anti-Modernity.” Government and Opposition 35(2): 170–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C. 2007. Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe, Vol. 22. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, Cas, and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira. 2018. “Studying Populism in Comparative Perspective: Reflections on the Contemporary and Future Research Agenda.” Comparative Political Studies 51(13): 1667–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mutz, Diana C. 2018. “Status Threat, Not Economic Hardship, Explains the 2016 Presidential Vote.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(19): E4330–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, B. 2013. “Acculturating Contexts and Anglo Opposition to Immigration in the United States.” American Journal of Political Science 57(2): 374–90.Google Scholar
Newman, B., and Velez, Y.. 2014. “Group Size versus Change? Assessing Americans’ Perception of Local Immigration.” Political Research Quarterly 67(2): 293–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, Pippa, and Inglehart, Ronald. 2019. Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OECD. 2005. “How Persistent Are Regional Disparities in Employment? The Role of Geographic Mobility.” OECD Employment Outlook 2005, 73–123. Paris: OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
Patana, Pauliina. 2020. “Changes in Local Context and Electoral Support for the Populist Radical Right: Evidence from Finland.” Party Politics 45(3): 419–43.Google Scholar
Perrineau, Pascal. 1997. Le Symptome Le Pen: Radiographie des Electeurs du Front National. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Perrineau, Pascal. 2014. La France au Front. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés. 2018. “The Revenge of the Places that Don’t Matter (and What to Do about It).” Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 11(1): 189–209.Google Scholar
Rojon, Sebastien. 2013. “Immigration and Extreme-Right Voting in France: A Contextual Analysis of the 2012 Presidential Elections.” Working Paper. Amsterdam: Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research.Google Scholar
Rydgren, Jens. 2003. “Meso-Level Reasons for Racism and Xenophobia: Some Converging and Diverging Effects of Radical Right Populism in France and Sweden.” European Journal of Social Theory 6(1): 45–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rydgren, J., and Ruth, P.. 2011. “Voting for the Radical Right in Swedish Municipalities: Social Marginality and Ethnic Competition?” Scandinavian Political Studies 34(3): 202–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rydgren, J., and Ruth, P.. 2013. “Contextual Explanations of Radical Right-Wing Support in Sweden: Socioeconomic Marginalization, Group Threat, and the Halo Effect.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 36(4): 711–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SudOuest. 2017. “Infographies: Comment Le Vote FN a Progressé Dans Le Sud-Ouest Depuis 2002.” https://www.sudouest.fr/2017/05/08/comment-le-vote-fn-a-progresse-dans-le-sud-ouest-depuis-2002-3427770-6121.php.Google Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney. 2010. “The Strategy of Paired Comparison: Toward a Theory of Practice.” Comparative Political Studies 43(2): 230–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teune, Henry, and Przeworski, Adam. 1970. The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry. New York: Wiley-Interscience.Google Scholar
US Census Bureau. 2018. “Historical Geographical Mobility: 2018.” https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/time-series/demo/historic.html.Google Scholar
Velez, Yamil Ricardo. 2018. “Residential Mobility Constraints and Immigration Restrictionism.” Political Behavior 3: 1–25.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Patana Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BMEGH1
Link
Supplementary material: File

Patana supplementary material

Appendix

Download Patana supplementary material(File)
File 41.3 KB