Progressiveness and the New Right: The electoral relevance of culturally progressive values in the Netherlands
De Koster,Willem Achterberg,P.H.J. Van der Waal,Jeroen Van Bohemen,Samira Kemmers,Roy
De Koster,Willem
Achterberg,P.H.J.
Van der Waal,Jeroen
Van Bohemen,Samira
Kemmers,Roy
Abstract
Whereas electoral support for new-rightist parties is often understood as driven by ethnocentric anti-immigrant sentiments, scholars have noted that new-rightist politicians have, surprisingly, stressed culturally progressive arguments in the last decade. Using recent Dutch survey data (N = 1,302) especially collected for this purpose, the article analyses the electoral relevance of three types of cultural progressiveness for voting for the new right and their relation to the well-documented anti-immigrant agenda. The analysis shows that neither moral progressiveness nor aversion to public interference of religious orthodoxy underlies the new-rightist vote. Support for freedom of speech proves relevant, but, in accordance with literature on the new right’s electoral strategy and with theorising on framing, this only leads towards the new right among those who are ethnocentric. These findings are discussed in the light of electoral competition, and questions for further research are formulated.
Description
Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
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Keywords
SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation
De Koster, W, Achterberg, P H J, Van der Waal, J, Van Bohemen, S & Kemmers, R 2014, 'Progressiveness and the New Right : The electoral relevance of culturally progressive values in the Netherlands', West European Politics, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 584-604. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2013.814963