Echoes of a Fading Past: Authoritarian Legacies and Far-Right Voting

Abstract

In recent years, electoral support for the far-right has increased dramatically across the world. This phenomenon is especially acute in some new democracies; however, little attention has been devoted to the legacies of past authoritarian ideologies. We argue that the ideology of the past regime affects far-right support because voters that were politically socialized under authoritarianism will be biased against its ideological brand. To test this, we conduct both an individual-level analysis across 20 countries between 1996-2018 using a difference-in-difference estimation and a country-level analysis using data from 39 democracies between 1980-2018. We demonstrate that voters that were socialized under right-wing dictatorships are less likely to support far-right parties compared to citizens that were socialized under different circumstances. Moreover, support for far-right parties is significantly lower in countries that transitioned from right-wing autocracies. Findings are discussed in light of the contribution to the far-right movement literature.