TY - JOUR

T1 - Centrist anti-establishment parties and their protest voters

T2 - More than a superficial romance?

AU - Engler, Sarah

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © European Consortium for Political Research 2020.

PY - 2020/8/1

Y1 - 2020/8/1

N2 - New centrist anti-establishment parties (CAPs) are successful competitors in Central and Eastern Europe. Due to their emphasis on anti-establishment rhetoric and a moderate ideological platform, their breakthrough is usually explained by voters' dissatisfaction with existing parties. However, little is known about the ideological component of their support. Expectations on the impact of ideology on vote choice in the protest voting literature range from 'pure protest voting', which denies any impact of ideology, to a more moderate approach, which combines protest and ideological considerations. Using survey data, I confirm that CAPs attract voters with lower levels of political trust, but ideology also matters. The degree of ideological sorting, however, varies. While some CAPs mainly attract voters from one side of the political spectrum, others attract voters from the left to the right more equally. The differences in the initial composition of their electorates have implications for the parties' future.

AB - New centrist anti-establishment parties (CAPs) are successful competitors in Central and Eastern Europe. Due to their emphasis on anti-establishment rhetoric and a moderate ideological platform, their breakthrough is usually explained by voters' dissatisfaction with existing parties. However, little is known about the ideological component of their support. Expectations on the impact of ideology on vote choice in the protest voting literature range from 'pure protest voting', which denies any impact of ideology, to a more moderate approach, which combines protest and ideological considerations. Using survey data, I confirm that CAPs attract voters with lower levels of political trust, but ideology also matters. The degree of ideological sorting, however, varies. While some CAPs mainly attract voters from one side of the political spectrum, others attract voters from the left to the right more equally. The differences in the initial composition of their electorates have implications for the parties' future.

KW - Central

KW - Centrist anti-establishment parties

KW - Eastern Europe

KW - Ideological voting

KW - New parties

KW - Protest voting

KW - Politics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083235063&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/S1755773920000132

DO - 10.1017/S1755773920000132

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85083235063

VL - 12

SP - 307

EP - 325

JO - European Political Science Review

JF - European Political Science Review

SN - 1755-7739

IS - 3

ER -