The Appeal of the Radical Right

How did Democrats lose the working class vote?

In several democratic elections this year, radical right-wing populist movements have gained momentum, capturing the votes of working-class and minority communities. What has attracted voters to these political parties? In cooperation with the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS-KNAW), the Van Leer Institute and the Max-Weber-Institute-for-Sociology, De Balie organizes an event on the appeal of the populist right-wing movement.

In the months after Donald Trump’s second presidential win, Democrats are asking themselves the uncomfortable question: how did we lose the working class vote? Republicans gained strong support from white workers in labor unions without a college degree, and also made significant gains among non-white Americans with similar education levels. Many left-leaning progressive political movements elsewhere, including in the Netherlands, are now engaged in a similar process of soul-searching as the radical right gains ground internationally. 

The panel

With cultural sociologists Michèle Lamont (Harvard University), Nissim Mizrachi (Tel Aviv University, Van Leer Institute), and Elisabeth Jane Topkara (Heidelberg University), we explore how marginalization, stigma, and neoliberal society can turn people toward populist right-wing political parties.