scholarly journals Citizens' candidates? Labour market experiences and radical right-wing candidates in the 2014 Swedish municipal elections

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satu Helske ◽  
Juta Kawalerowicz

This article uses Swedish register data to study the labour market experiences of radical right-wing candidates. We look at different measures of economic insecurity (labour market participation trajectories, experience of unemployment in social networks, relative decline of men’s income and relative growth of jobs for foreign-born workers vis-a-vis natives) and examine whether they are predictors of candidates running for the Sweden Democrats, the main radical right-wing party in Sweden, as opposed to another mainstream political party. We find some confirmation for the notion that radical right-wing candidates are citizens’ candidates (Bó, Finan, Folke, Persson and Rickne, 2018) as far as labour market experiences of radical right-wing candidates are markedly different from mainstream party candidates. Those with turbulent or out-of-labour market labour market trajectories are much more likely to run for the Sweden Democrats, as opposed to other parties. Additionally, the same is true for candidates embedded in social networks with higher levels of unemployment, while working in high skilled industry markedly lowers probability of running for the Sweden Democrats, especially for male candidates with low educational attainment. We find no confirmation for decline in relative status of men and mixed results for ethnic threat hypothesis.

Author(s):  
Björn R. H. Blomqvist ◽  
David J. T. Sumpter ◽  
Richard P. Mann

The use of classical regression techniques in social science can prevent the discovery of complex, nonlinear mechanisms and often relies too heavily on both the expertise and prior expectations of the data analyst. In this paper, we present a regression methodology that combines the interpretability of traditional, well used, statistical methods with the full predictability and flexibility of Bayesian statistics techniques. Our modelling approach allows us to find and explain the mechanisms behind the rise of Radical Right-wing Populist parties (RRPs) that we would have been unable to find using traditional methods. Using Swedish municipality-level data (2002–2018), we find no evidence that the proportion of foreign-born residents is predictive of increases in RRP support. Instead, education levels and population density are the significant variables that impact the change in support for the RRP, in addition to spatial and temporal control variables. We argue that our methodology, which produces models with considerably better fit of the complexity and nonlinearities often found in social systems, provides a better tool for hypothesis testing and exploration of theories about RRPs and other social movements. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Coupling functions: dynamical interaction mechanisms in the physical, biological and social sciences’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-356
Author(s):  
Kari Kristinsson ◽  
Margret Sigrun Sigurdardottir

Research on immigration has emphasized the role that statistical discrimination plays in hiring decisions. A better understanding of how immigrants overcome this type of discrimination might lead to better interventions to improve their labour market participation. In this paper, we use qualitative interviews to examine how immigrants can reduce statistical discrimination by signalling their similarity to employers in their job applications. Specifically, we find that immigrants who demonstrate signal similarity to employers in the type of education, job experience and religion tend to reduce their statistical discrimination by employers. We suggest how further research can build on these results to provide possible tools for immigrant integration.


2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 40-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amal Jamal

This essay analyzes the political motivations behind the Jewish Nation-State Bill introduced in the Knesset in November 2014, shedding light on the ascendancy of the Israeli political establishment's radical right wing. It argues that there were both internal and external factors at work and that it is only by examining these thoroughly that the magnitude of the racist agenda currently being promoted can be grasped. The essay also discusses the proposed legislation's long history and the implications of this effort to constitutionalize what amounts to majoritarian despotism in present-day Israel.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-48
Author(s):  
Igor Tanchyn ◽  
◽  
Halyna Lutsyshyn ◽  

Author(s):  
Kehinde Oluwaseun Omotoso ◽  
Jimi Adesina ◽  
Ololade G. Adewole

Technology plays a significant role in bridging gender gap in labour market outcomes. This paper investigates gender differential in broadband Internet usage and its effects on women‘s labour market participation. Employing an instrumental variable approach, findings suggest that exogenously determined high-speed broadband internet usage leads to increases of about 14.1 and 10.6 percentage points in labour market participation for single women and married women with some level of education, respectively. Moreover, further analyses suggest that married women are generally less likely to use the Internet to search for job opportunities and this could partly explains their low labour market participation rate. The findings suggest that more policy effort is required to bridge gender differentials in digital technologies and employment opportunities in South Africa.


Author(s):  
Francisco Campos ◽  
Markus Goldstein ◽  
Laura McGorman ◽  
Ana Maria Munoz Boudet ◽  
Obert Pimhidzai

Evidence from developed and developing countries indicates that there is significant gender segregation within the labour market, with women more likely to work in low-productivity sectors or less profitable businesses. This chapter looks at occupational segregation which significantly contributes to the earnings gender gap worldwide. The chapter studies the differences in outcomes for male and female enterprises and their sectors in sub-Saharan Africa, a region of high female labour market participation and entrepreneurship. Data on Uganda show that women breaking into male-dominated sectors make as much as men, and three times more than women staying in female-dominated sectors. Factors including entrepreneurial skill/abilities and credit/human capital constraints do not explain women’s sectoral choices. However, information about profitability of their small enterprises, male role models’ influence, and exposure to the sector from family and friends are critical in helping women circumvent or overcome norms undergirding occupational segregation.


Author(s):  
Koen Damhuis

Trump, Wilders, Salvini, Le Pen—during the last decades, radical right-wing leaders and their parties have become important political forces in most Western democracies. Their growing appeal raises an increasingly relevant question: who are the voters that support them and why do they do so? Numerous and variegated answers have been given to this question, inside as well as outside academia. Yet, curiously, despite their quantity and diversity, these existing explanations are often based on a similar assumption: that of homogeneous electorates. Consequently, the idea that different subgroups with different profiles and preferences might coexist within the constituencies of radical right-wing parties has thus far remained underdeveloped, both theoretically and empirically. This ground-breaking book is the first one that systematically investigates the heterogeneity of radical right-wing voters. Theoretically, it introduces the concept of electoral equifinality to come to grips with this diversity. Empirically, it relies on innovative statistical analyses and no less than 125 life-history interviews with voters in France and the Netherlands. Based on this unique material, the study identifies different roads to the radical right and compares them within a cross-national perspective. In addition, through an analysis of almost 1,400 tweets posted by Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen, the book shows how the latter are able to appeal to different groups of voters. Taken together, the book thus provides a host of ground-breaking insights into the heterogeneous phenomenon of radical right support.


Author(s):  
Elisabeth Ivarsflaten ◽  
Scott Blinder ◽  
Lise Bjånesøy

The “populist radical right” is a contested concept in scholarly work for good reason. This chapter begins by explaining that the political parties usually grouped together under this label are not a party family in a conventional sense and do not self-identify with this category. It goes on to show how political science scholarship has established that in Europe during the past thirty or so years we have seen the rise of a set of parties that share a common ideological feature—nativism. The nativist political parties experiencing most electoral support have combined their nativist agenda with some other legitimate ideological companion, which provides deniability—a shield against charges that the nativist agenda makes the parties and their supporters right-wing extremist and undemocratic. The chapter goes on to explain that in order to make progress on our understanding of how and why the populist radical right persuades citizens, we need to recognize: first, that nativism is the only necessary ingredient without which the populist radical right loses its force; and second, that nativism in contemporary established democracies has tended not to persuade a large share of voters without an ideological companion.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Bruckmeier ◽  
Sandra Dummert ◽  
Philipp Grunau ◽  
Katrin Hohmeyer ◽  
Torsten Lietzmann

Abstract The Sample of Integrated Welfare Benefit Biographies (SIG) is a new administrative longitudinal microdata set representative of recipients of Germany’s main welfare programme, the Unemployment Benefit II (UB II, Arbeitslosengeld II). The data set contains detailed longitudinal information on welfare receipt and labour market activities, and hence enables researchers to analyse the dynamics of benefit receipt, income and employment. A distinct feature of the SIG is that it provides information not only for individual benefit recipients but also for family members, including children and partners. This is possible because eligibility for UB II benefits depends on the household structure, and it is means-tested on household income. In addition to socio-demographic and regional information, the SIG contains extensive information on the employment biographies of benefit recipients and their household members from the Integrated Employment Biographies (IEB) of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). This allows researchers to examine the interaction between labour market participation and benefit receipt. The SIG is available to researchers at the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the IAB.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document