Radical right populist parties have recently obtained levels of power throughout the European Parliament and their respective countries. Due to the changing political landscape in Europe, concerns of social cohesion and economic factors have come to the forefront of political conversations to understand why people may be voting for radical right populist parties. This thesis utilizes panel regression models with random effects to test common social cohesion factors and perspectives of immigration effects on radical right populist parties’ electoral percentages in the European Parliament from 2009, 2014, 2019, and 2024. These social cohesion factors are views of immigration by ethnic difference and economic disadvantages, nationalism, religiosity, anti-democratic sentiment, and anti-EU sentiments. Economic metrics are also included in the regressions to test the first hypothesis on whether or not social cohesion or economic factors are attributing to the radical right populist parties’ vote shares. The second hypothesis considers if ethnic-based discrimination or economic-based discrimination are correlated to the parties’ vote shares. Lastly, the third hypothesis considered if immigration numbers themselves are an attributing factor. Results show that negative perspectives of immigrants are highly correlated to rising radical right populist parties’ electoral percentages with negative economic viewpoints about immigrants being more correlated than economic metrics and other social cohesion factors. Considerations for future research and limitations are explored.
","abstract_html":"<p>Radical right populist parties have recently obtained levels of power throughout the European Parliament and their respective countries. Due to the changing political landscape in Europe, concerns of social cohesion and economic factors have come to the forefront of political conversations to understand why people may be voting for radical right populist parties. This thesis utilizes panel regression models with random effects to test common social cohesion factors and perspectives of immigration effects on radical right populist parties’ electoral percentages in the European Parliament from 2009, 2014, 2019, and 2024. These social cohesion factors are views of immigration by ethnic difference and economic disadvantages, nationalism, religiosity, anti-democratic sentiment, and anti-EU sentiments. Economic metrics are also included in the regressions to test the first hypothesis on whether or not social cohesion or economic factors are attributing to the radical right populist parties’ vote shares. The second hypothesis considers if ethnic-based discrimination or economic-based discrimination are correlated to the parties’ vote shares. Lastly, the third hypothesis considered if immigration numbers themselves are an attributing factor. Results show that negative perspectives of immigrants are highly correlated to rising radical right populist parties’ electoral percentages with negative economic viewpoints about immigrants being more correlated than economic metrics and other social cohesion factors. Considerations for future research and limitations are explored.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Barnhardt, Brittany L"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Robert Pauly","Elif Filiz","Marek Steedman"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2025-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:55Z","subjects":["politics","Europe","European Union","quantitative","radical right parties","populism","International Relations","Macroeconomics","Models and Methods"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1141","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Robert Pauly","Elif Filiz","Marek Steedman"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Barnhardt, Brittany L"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2028-07-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["politics","Europe","European Union","quantitative","radical right parties","populism","International Relations","Macroeconomics","Models and Methods"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1141"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Radical right populist parties have recently obtained levels of power throughout the European Parliament and their respective countries. Due to the changing political landscape in Europe, concerns of social cohesion and economic factors have come to the forefront of political conversations to understand why people may be voting for radical right populist parties. This thesis utilizes panel regression models with random effects to test common social cohesion factors and perspectives of immigration effects on radical right populist parties’ electoral percentages in the European Parliament from 2009, 2014, 2019, and 2024. These social cohesion factors are views of immigration by ethnic difference and economic disadvantages, nationalism, religiosity, anti-democratic sentiment, and anti-EU sentiments. Economic metrics are also included in the regressions to test the first hypothesis on whether or not social cohesion or economic factors are attributing to the radical right populist parties’ vote shares. The second hypothesis considers if ethnic-based discrimination or economic-based discrimination are correlated to the parties’ vote shares. Lastly, the third hypothesis considered if immigration numbers themselves are an attributing factor. Results show that negative perspectives of immigrants are highly correlated to rising radical right populist parties’ electoral percentages with negative economic viewpoints about immigrants being more correlated than economic metrics and other social cohesion factors. Considerations for future research and limitations are explored.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Radical Right Populism: Factors Within European Nations"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Robert Pauly","Elif Filiz","Marek Steedman"],"dc:creator":["Barnhardt, Brittany L"],"dc:date.available":["2028-07-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Radical right populist parties have recently obtained levels of power throughout the European Parliament and their respective countries. Due to the changing political landscape in Europe, concerns of social cohesion and economic factors have come to the forefront of political conversations to understand why people may be voting for radical right populist parties. This thesis utilizes panel regression models with random effects to test common social cohesion factors and perspectives of immigration effects on radical right populist parties’ electoral percentages in the European Parliament from 2009, 2014, 2019, and 2024. These social cohesion factors are views of immigration by ethnic difference and economic disadvantages, nationalism, religiosity, anti-democratic sentiment, and anti-EU sentiments. Economic metrics are also included in the regressions to test the first hypothesis on whether or not social cohesion or economic factors are attributing to the radical right populist parties’ vote shares. The second hypothesis considers if ethnic-based discrimination or economic-based discrimination are correlated to the parties’ vote shares. Lastly, the third hypothesis considered if immigration numbers themselves are an attributing factor. Results show that negative perspectives of immigrants are highly correlated to rising radical right populist parties’ electoral percentages with negative economic viewpoints about immigrants being more correlated than economic metrics and other social cohesion factors. Considerations for future research and limitations are explored.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1141"],"dc:subject":["politics","Europe","European Union","quantitative","radical right parties","populism","International Relations","Macroeconomics","Models and Methods"],"dc:title":["Radical Right Populism: Factors Within European Nations"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:55Z"}