Publication details
'Communist and Right Populists understand us'. Electoral support in peripheral post-socialist regions as a product of nostalgia and deprivation.
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | We can see an interesting phenomenon in old industrial and peripheral rural areas in Czechia. People here vote for the Communist Party on the one hand. And on the other hand, vote for populist radical rights parties. And many voters often choose between these two political families. But why are these political families so successful in these regions? The answer could be because the voters are nostalgic and deprived. Some theories like the relative deprivation thesis (RYDGREN 2007), the concept of a place-based collective memory (GREVE, FRITSCH, WYRWICH 2021) or the grievance theory (KERN, MARIEN, HOOGHE 2015) focus on the frustration arising from feelings of relative deprivation. The voters are deprived or outraged because they have done better in the past, and their regions are 'left behind' now. Therefore, voters choose parties that they think to offer solutions to their nostalgia and deprivation. This paper will try to verify the validity of these concepts in selected regions of Czechia. In the beginning, the historical development of the regions will be presented and thew will be presented the results of the interviews with voters of the communist and populist radical right parties. |