Globalization,Posts

How Globalization Pushed Working-Class Voters Towards Far-Right Parties

The leader of the French National Rally Marine Le Pen in 2012 with workers of PSA, a car manufacturer. Credits: Simon Daval – Maxppp The rise of far-right parties increasingly came to the forefront in recent years due to the good electoral results of these parties in Europe. Lega Nord in Italy, the National Rally in France, or the Alternative for Germany on the other side of the Rhine are not merely anti-establishment and rebellious parties anymore but seek to exercise increasingly prominent political responsibilities. Thus, understanding and analysing this phenomenon, without settling for hasty moral judgments, appeared to me to be the appropriate intellectual response. I therefore decided, a few weeks...
Globalization,Posts

Love Actually – Are ‘Losers of Globalization’ and the AfD a Perfect Match?

Alice Weidel: Leader of the AfD; Image by Rolf Vennenbernd from Neue Züricher Zeitung From almost making the leap into the German parliament in its foundation year 2013, over pulling almost 7% in the following European elections and eventually entering the German Bundestag in 2017, the AfD caught global attention. The reasons behind the remarkable rise of the German far-right party have often been discussed by scholars. Already long before the existence of the AfD, Betz introduced the thesis that 'losers of globalization', meaning people left behind by modernization and the accompanied change in the labour market, tend to vote...