{"title":"Deterrent or Stimulus? How Perceived Societal Stigma Affects Participation in Populist Radical Right Parties","authors":"S. Ammassari","doi":"10.1177/00323217241234527","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"While the effects of political stigma on populist radical right parties have been extensively investigated, we know little about the impact of societal stigma on populist radical right sympathisers. To examine this, I focus on a key group of populist radical right supporters, party members, and ask: How does perceived societal stigma affect the participation of populist radical right party members? Drawing on stigma research from social psychology and sociology, I develop the following three hypotheses: that stigma will work as a deterrent, as a stimulus, or that it will depend on where populist radical right rank-and-file live. I test these on the League in Italy and the Sweden Democrats, using original membership surveys of over 7800 grassroots members and interviews with 56 of them. The survey shows that perceived societal stigma has a consistent negative correlation with members’ participation. Furthermore, the interviews reveal that this negative relationship is due to stigma deterring participation, rather than participation reducing stigma.","PeriodicalId":51379,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Political Studies","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217241234527","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
While the effects of political stigma on populist radical right parties have been extensively investigated, we know little about the impact of societal stigma on populist radical right sympathisers. To examine this, I focus on a key group of populist radical right supporters, party members, and ask: How does perceived societal stigma affect the participation of populist radical right party members? Drawing on stigma research from social psychology and sociology, I develop the following three hypotheses: that stigma will work as a deterrent, as a stimulus, or that it will depend on where populist radical right rank-and-file live. I test these on the League in Italy and the Sweden Democrats, using original membership surveys of over 7800 grassroots members and interviews with 56 of them. The survey shows that perceived societal stigma has a consistent negative correlation with members’ participation. Furthermore, the interviews reveal that this negative relationship is due to stigma deterring participation, rather than participation reducing stigma.
期刊介绍:
Political Studies is a leading international journal committed to the very highest standards of peer review that publishes academically rigorous and original work in all fields of politics and international relations. The editors encourage a pluralistic approach to political science and debate across the discipline. Political Studies aims to develop the most promising new work available and to facilitate professional communication in political science.