How Economic Hardship Fuels Support for the Far Right
Globalization and economic hardship related to financial crises are known to have boosted support for far-right parties and socially conservative political agendas aimed at restricting the rights of marginalized groups including ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities, migrants, LGBTQIA+ people, and women.
When she launched her ERC Consolidator Grant-winning research project LOSS (Narratives of Loss: Unravelling the Origins of Support for Socially Conservative Political Agendas) in 2020, Catherine De Vries said that “we do not understand why this happens.” About midway through the LOSS project, she can now hypothesize at least two channels that link economic hardship to the electoral success of the far-right.