Understanding the geography of discontent: perceptions of government’s biases against left-behind places
Understanding the geography of discontent: perceptions of government’s biases against left-behind places
Governments need to make choices over distributing resources and managing socioeconomic change, which can have geographically uneven effects. This may give rise to perceptions of institutional bias against left-behind places, treating them like they ‘don’t matter’, which has been widely linked to populism. Which voters develop this viewpoint remains unclear. This study explores citizens’ perceptions of geographic bias across five European democracies (Britain, Croatia, France, Germany, and Spain), using original surveys and granular contextual data. Our results reveal that perceptions of geographic bias are widespread. Clear majorities see government as biased towards rich areas and capital cities, while around half of respondents perceive bias against rural areas. Perceptions of geographical bias reflect individuals’ location, lack of trust in government, holding populist attitudes, and being more left-wing, but not being a supporter of a populist party. Our results suggest potential for mainstream left/liberal parties, not just populists, to exploit perceptions of bias.
Geography of discontent, left-behind places, place-based resentment, political trust, populism, urban-rural divide
McKay, Lawrence
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Jennings, Will
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Stoker, Gerry
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McKay, Lawrence
4ecf2fd8-3fbf-4a3c-9c22-6856fc1a09be
Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
Stoker, Gerry
209ba619-6a65-4bc1-9235-cba0d826bfd9
McKay, Lawrence, Jennings, Will and Stoker, Gerry
(2023)
Understanding the geography of discontent: perceptions of government’s biases against left-behind places.
Journal of European Public Policy.
(doi:10.1080/13501763.2023.2277381).
Abstract
Governments need to make choices over distributing resources and managing socioeconomic change, which can have geographically uneven effects. This may give rise to perceptions of institutional bias against left-behind places, treating them like they ‘don’t matter’, which has been widely linked to populism. Which voters develop this viewpoint remains unclear. This study explores citizens’ perceptions of geographic bias across five European democracies (Britain, Croatia, France, Germany, and Spain), using original surveys and granular contextual data. Our results reveal that perceptions of geographic bias are widespread. Clear majorities see government as biased towards rich areas and capital cities, while around half of respondents perceive bias against rural areas. Perceptions of geographical bias reflect individuals’ location, lack of trust in government, holding populist attitudes, and being more left-wing, but not being a supporter of a populist party. Our results suggest potential for mainstream left/liberal parties, not just populists, to exploit perceptions of bias.
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Understanding the geography of discontent perceptions of government s biases against left-behind places
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Accepted/In Press date: 25 October 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 19 November 2023
Keywords:
Geography of discontent, left-behind places, place-based resentment, political trust, populism, urban-rural divide
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Local EPrints ID: 484758
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/484758
ISSN: 1350-1763
PURE UUID: 531ae4b3-3edf-4158-83c9-e1ac8f15fe7a
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Date deposited: 21 Nov 2023 17:33
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:58
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