Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Political Science
Committee Chair
Erik S. Herron
Committee Member
Matthew L. Jacobsmeier
Committee Member
Mason W. Moseley
Committee Member
William I. Brustein
Abstract
Using the question of what is driving the support for populists in the mid-late 2010s in Western Europe and the United States as the starting point, this dissertation attempts to answer a number of different questions related to populists: Were the reasons behind support for populists in countries that saw an increase in support for populisms similar to those that saw a decrease in support? Are the reasons for supporting right-wing populists different from more general ethnocentric populists? Are the reasons that Americans supported Donald Trump similar or different from the reasons behind support for Western European populists? Following migration-related crises in the 2014-2015 time period, many parts of Western Europe and the United States saw an increase in electoral support for populist actors. This dissertation argues that the activation of status threat, or the perception that a dominant social and/or ethnic group’s position is being threatened by an influx of newcomers, along with ingroup salience and outgroup bias, are key factors that helped increase electoral support for populist actors. The results provide a complicated picture on the state of populism in Western Europe and the United States; while there is evidence of a growth in outgroup bias in Western Europe, this is not the case in the United States. However, there is evidence of a convergence between Trump supporting Republicans and Western European populists.
Recommended Citation
Shin, Kyu Chul, "A Shock to the System: Analyzing Ethnocentric Populist Support Before and After Crises" (2022). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 11320.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/11320