CAN UNEVEN WELFARE FUNDING EX-PLAIN THE RISE OF THE POPULIST RADI-CAL RIGHT? A sub-national study of variations in welfare provisions and the change in vote share for the Sweden Democrats in Sweden between 2010 and 2014.

Abstract

In the last few years, the party group defined as the radical right have risen in popularity across the nations of Europe. The research in this field is impressive yet many assume that these party simply represent a xenophobic view as a reaction to the recent waves of immigrants fleeing war or social injustice in Africa and middle east but what is xenophobia if not a lack of social, general, trust? The research in this field is limited with only a few studies that have taken it into consideration. This paper analyses the impact of uneven distribution in education and elderly care funding to assess the impact of partiality in welfare institutions on the vote share of the populist radical right. The study compares 276 municipalities in Sweden and assesses the aver-age municipal expenditures on welfare relative to the national average. The result suggests that in municipalities where the expenditures are below the national average, support for the PRRWP have increased between 2010 and 2014.