IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/revinw/v71y2025i1ne12715.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Anxious Middle Class: Risk of Downward Mobility and Support for Radical Right Parties across Western Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Judith Derndorfer

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between economic insecurity of the middle class and support for radical right parties (RRP) in 13 Western European countries. Economic insecurity is conceptualised as the occupational risk of downward mobility. To capture the potential mitigating effects of upward mobility prospects and a growing middle class on economic insecurity, I compute a novel index that incorporates the other two dynamics in addition to the risk of downward mobility. I find that economic insecurity differs across occupational groups and countries. Both measures are positively correlated with RRP support. The results highlight that the decline of the middle class has implications for the political sphere.

Suggested Citation

  • Judith Derndorfer, 2025. "The Anxious Middle Class: Risk of Downward Mobility and Support for Radical Right Parties across Western Europe," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 71(1), February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:71:y:2025:i:1:n:e12715
    DOI: 10.1111/roiw.12715
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12715
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/roiw.12715?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:71:y:2025:i:1:n:e12715. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iariwea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.