Why is the Support for Extreme Right Higher in More Open Societies?

We investigate the support for extreme right across societies of different levels of openness in Europe. Societal openness is defined as a greater tendency to accept universal vis-à-vis traditional values, and is expected to catalyze and filter the socioeconomic factors that affect the vote shares of extreme right (i.e., neofascist and populist parties). We establish that, in more open societies the direct effect of openness on neofascist votes is, as expected, negative. Paradoxically, however, openness increases the neofascist support indirectly through immigration and unemployment. We explain this with socioeconomic dynamics whereby vulnerable native segments of a more open society, i.e., a society manifesting higher welcoming sentiments towards immigrants, turn to neofascists as immigration and unemployment start threatening their material welfare. Moreover, we find that openness has no direct effect on the support for populist parties, but has indirect positive effects through unemployment. Our results establish strong links among openness, immigration and unemployment in determining the sources of neofascist and populist support in Europe.