lnu.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Backlash in policy attitudes after the election of an extreme political party
Linnaeus University, School of Business and Economics, Department of Economics and Statistics.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5620-4745
University of California San Diego, USA;Norwegian School of Economics, Norway;NBER, USA;CESifo, Germany;CEPR, UK;IZA, Germany.
IZA, Germany;Stockholm University, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8887-5677
2021 (English)In: Journal of Public Economics, ISSN 0047-2727, E-ISSN 1879-2316, Vol. 204, article id 104533Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Sustainable development
Not refering to any SDG
Abstract [en]

This paper studies how public attitudes towards reduced immigration, the signature policy of the far right Sweden Democrats, respond once the party increases their political representation at the local level. To identify causal effects, we use panel data from 290 municipal election districts and compare otherwise similar elections where the Sweden Democrats either barely win or lose an additional seat. We estimate that a one seat increase for this far-right, anti-immigration party decreases negative attitudes towards immigration by 1.8 or 4.1 percentage points (depending on which national survey we use), contrary to the party's policy position. Consistent with these attitudinal changes, we find suggestive evidence the Sweden Democrats lose the incumbency advantage experienced by other small parties in Sweden. Exploring possible mechanisms, we find evidence for higher politician turnover and a rise in negative newspaper coverage. These findings demonstrate that political representation can cause an attitudinal backlash as a fringe party and their ideas are placed under closer scrutiny.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2021. Vol. 204, article id 104533
Keywords [en]
Far-right parties, Immigration, Policy attitudes, Political backlash
National Category
Political Science
Research subject
Social Sciences, Political Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-108491DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104533ISI: 000722209200007Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85119021534Local ID: 2021OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-108491DiVA, id: diva2:1618171
Available from: 2021-12-08 Created: 2021-12-08 Last updated: 2025-05-07Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Carlsson, MagnusRooth, Dan-Olof

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Carlsson, MagnusRooth, Dan-Olof
By organisation
Department of Economics and Statistics
In the same journal
Journal of Public Economics
Political Science

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 213 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf