POPULISM AND SOCIAL STATUS

Noam Gidron examines the electoral success of the populist radical right from the point of view of social status. In this interview, Gidron argues that the populist radical right thrives when people perceive their social status to be diminished or threatened. Combining economic and cultural explanations, he suggests that the constituency of right-wing populist parties is often composed of a core group of white working-class men because this group’s social status has been relatively low at a time when the social status of other groups in society, for example women, has likely increased. In turn, this produced a sense of nostalgia for a time when their social status, recognitions, and place within the social order, were more prominent.