How the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and their voters veered to the radical right, 2013–2017

Until 2017, Germany was an exception to the success of radical right parties in postwar Europe. We provide new evidence for the transformation of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to a radical right party drawing upon social media data. Further, we demonstrate that the AfD's electorate now matches the radical right template of other countries and that its trajectory mirrors the ideological shift of the party. Using data from the 2013 to 2017 series of German Longitudinal Elections Study (GLES) tracking polls, we employ multilevel modelling to test our argument on support for the AfD. We find the AfD's support now resembles the image of European radical right voters. Specifically, general right-wing views and negative attitudes towards immigration have become the main motivation to vote for the AfD. This, together with the increased salience of immigration and the AfD's new ideological profile, explains the party's rise.     

Environmentalism undercover: The environmental dimension of public support for domestic water charges

Research shows that environmental attitudes can affect support for environmentally-beneficial policies. However, it is unclear whether environmental attitudes can influence support for such policies when they are not being primarily framed through an environmental lens. Using data from the 2011 Irish National Election Study, this paper examines the issue using the case of support for the reintroduction of water charges. This was a contentious issue with debate largely focusing on the proposal as an austerity measure, but the proposal also had environmental implications. The results find that while individuals' willingness to prioritise environmental protection over economic growth did not affect their support for water charges, their willingness to make individual sacrifices for the environment did. Moreover, voters’ position on this policy impacted their vote choice. The findings are particularly important given the struggles that governments are facing in implementing environmental taxes and charges.     

Attitudes to voting rules and electoral system preferences: Evidence from the 1999 and 2003 Scottish Parliament elections

Researchers have paid little attention to the way citizens evaluate different electoral systems. This reflects the limited knowledge citizens are presumed to have about alternative electoral arrangements. However, the establishment of a legislature under new electoral rules creates conditions in which citizens can make more informed judgements. Such a situation occurred with the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, elected under the Additional Member system. Using data collected in 1999 and 2003, we consider Scottish voters’ reactions to the new electoral rules. We examine how voters evaluated various features and outcomes of the rules, the structure of voters’ attitudes, and which features and outcomes of the rules were decisive in shaping overall support for plurality and proportional voting systems.     

Economic forces and anti-immigrant attitudes in Western Europe: a paradox in search of an explanation

Greater economic hardship is widely conceived as conducive to higher levels of majority hostility towards minority groups. Research in the classical social-psychological tradition as well as data on political trends support such a view. However, more recent survey and experimental findings cast doubt on the economic deprivation model of out-group hostility. O'Connell examines responses to sections of the European Social Survey that suggest that economic deprivation is still linked to out-group hostility, and argues that this position is contradicted by recent trends in anti-immigrant politics: electoral support for far-right parties has been more prevalent in wealthier and more materially secure societies than in poorer ones. He offers an explanation for this apparent paradox, suggesting that increased economic security has both direct and indirect effects on a society, and that these effects run counter to each other. As economic scarcity decreases, concerns over economic rivalry decline but new concerns related to integration emerge, particularly as the society becomes more attractive to migrants.     

Prejudice against Gypsies among Spanish adolescents

This article examines the attitudes of Spanish adolescents towards Gypsies, the most discriminated group in Spain, by looking at two distinct attitudinal components: the first, the cognitive component, was studied by measuring a willingness to extend twelve rights to Gypsies; the second, the affective component, by assessing a liking for this group. The research demonstrated that the adolescents' willingness to extend rights to Gypsies was greater than their liking for them. Furthermore, the adolescents were more willing to extend social rights than political ones. Older adolescents, females, those with higher self-esteem, greater political experience, a more resolute endorsement of democratic norms and a stronger identification with a group of friends presented more positive attitudes towards Gypsies. On the other hand, adolescents who were more supportive of violent groups, more strongly identified with the Catholic Church, other religious groups or a soccer team showed more negative attitudes towards Gypsies.     

Book Reviews

The increase of multiculturalism in European societies poses challenges to citizenship education, which, in formal education, relies on national values and neglects the emergence of cosmopolitanism. This article compares the patriotic and cosmopolitan values of Russian-speaking students in Estonia, Latvia and the Russian Federation using the data of two large surveys. The analysis revealed that Russian-speaking adolescents in Estonia and Latvia demonstrate higher support of cosmopolitan values than the Estonians, Latvians, and students in the Russian Federation. A worrisome finding is that students in the cosmopolitan cluster do not firmly favor democratic values and are not interested in improving their civic knowledge.     

Female Employment in Lithuania: Testing Three Popular Explanations

This article compares three popular explanations for changes in female employment in post-socialist countries: retraditionalization, reserve army of labor, and revalued resources. Although these explanations are complementary in many ways, the retraditionalization thesis seems the most accurate explanation. In the early 1990s, gender-role attitudes were highly traditional, a tendency that might have contributed to the huge decrease in female labor force participation. Despite the changes, the comeback of the male-breadwinner family model is unlikely, since the acceptance of women's working roles is rapidly increasing.     

Global and Neighborhood Attitudes Toward the Police: Differentiation by Race,Ethnicity and Type of Contact

This study focused on a series of hypotheses regarding residents’ attitudes toward the police: (1) residents’ attitudes toward the police are better represented by a two-dimensional model that differentiates global perceptions of the police from assessments of the police in the respondents’ neighborhood; (2) the structure of residents’ attitudes toward the police is different for Whites, African Americans, and Latinos; (3) direct experiences with the police in the respondents’ neighborhood will be more strongly associated with the respondents’ assessment of police in their neighborhood than global perceptions of the police; and (4) the influence of direct experiences with the police will be stronger for African Americans and Latinos than for Whites. Results based on structural equation modeling offer strong support for the need to differentiate between global and neighborhood perceptions of the police. The underlining measurement structure of attitudes toward the police was similar for Whites, African Americans, and Latinos. However, the relationship between global and neighborhood attitudes was stronger for African Americans and Latinos. Negative contact with the police was associated with both negative global and neighborhood assessments of the police. Non-negative contact was associated with positive neighborhood perceptions of the police; however, only when it occurred within the neighborhood. The influence of direct experiences with the police (both inside and outside the neighborhood) was similar for Whites, African Americans, and Latinos.     

A Comparison of the Sexual Behaviors and Attitudes of Adolescent Girls with Older Vs. Similar-Aged Boyfriends

Sexual behaviors and attitudes of female adolescents were studied as a function of age of boyfriend. Boyfriend's age was dichotomized: similar-aged was defined as within 2 years of the girls' age; older aged was 3 or more years older than the girl. A school-based, ethnically diverse sample of 9th-grade girls (N = 146) who had been in a serious romantic relationship was surveyed on 5 dimensions of sexual attitudes, 2 classes of sexual motives, 7 normative sexual behaviors, and 3 types of risky sexual practices. Results showed that in terms of behavior, girls with older boyfriends were more likely than girls with similar-aged boyfriends to engage in all forms of sexual intimacy, to have sex under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and to experience sexual coercion. In terms of sexual attitudes, girls with older boyfriends were more likely to endorse beliefs that guys are sexually driven, that sex just happens and is spontaneous, and that sex is related to maturity. These results are discussed in terms of a potential power differential that emerges when girls date older boys.     

Using composite measures in police cynicism research: An application of canonical factor regression

In this paper, a new analytical strategy, the canonical factor regression method (CFRM) is introduced as a tool for constructing indices and measuring reliabilities of those indices from items derived from Niederhoffer's police cynicism index. Data for the project were derived from the survey responses of 574 Illinois police chiefs. Analysis of the data in the present project suggests that CFRM is a useful tool for constructing composite indices. CFRM allowed us to provide a more powerful test of hypothesized relationships between dimensions of cynicism and theoretically salient predictor variables than has previously been possible.