Ethnicity Coding Revisited: Right-Wing Parties as Catalysts for Mobilization Against Immigrant Welfare Rights

TY - JOUR

T1 - Ethnicity Coding Revisited

T2 - Right-Wing Parties as Catalysts for Mobilization Against Immigrant Welfare Rights

AU - Arndt, Christoph

AU - Thomsen, Jens Peter Frølund

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Ethnicity coding means that threat-based views of ethnic minority members spur opposition to specific welfare programmes. To advance knowledge of the influence of political parties on ethnicity coding, we apply a dynamic approach. Longitudinal analyses show that: a) because right-wing political parties persistently frame state pensions as benefitting native majority members, a perceived ethnic threat increases support for this welfare scheme, and b) a perceived ethnic threat reduces support for social assistance when right-wing political parties frame it as favouring immigrants. Extending these findings, we show that opposition to immigrant welfare rights prompts electoral realignment, as left-wing voters increasingly switch to right-wing parties. More generally, political parties are capable of stimulating opposition to parts of the welfare state, including electoral mobilization against immigrant welfare rights. We utilize unusually rich mass-level survey data from Denmark, covering a 25-year period (1990‒2015). The broader implications of our findings for theories of ethnicity coding, political elite persuasion, and welfare state development are discussed in the conclusion.

AB - Ethnicity coding means that threat-based views of ethnic minority members spur opposition to specific welfare programmes. To advance knowledge of the influence of political parties on ethnicity coding, we apply a dynamic approach. Longitudinal analyses show that: a) because right-wing political parties persistently frame state pensions as benefitting native majority members, a perceived ethnic threat increases support for this welfare scheme, and b) a perceived ethnic threat reduces support for social assistance when right-wing political parties frame it as favouring immigrants. Extending these findings, we show that opposition to immigrant welfare rights prompts electoral realignment, as left-wing voters increasingly switch to right-wing parties. More generally, political parties are capable of stimulating opposition to parts of the welfare state, including electoral mobilization against immigrant welfare rights. We utilize unusually rich mass-level survey data from Denmark, covering a 25-year period (1990‒2015). The broader implications of our findings for theories of ethnicity coding, political elite persuasion, and welfare state development are discussed in the conclusion.

KW - CHAUVINISM

KW - OPPOSITION

KW - PUBLIC-OPINION

KW - RACE CARD

KW - RACIALIZATION

KW - REGIMES

KW - RESPONSES

KW - SUPPORT

KW - SWEDEN

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068008567&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/1467-9477.12145

DO - 10.1111/1467-9477.12145

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0080-6757

VL - 42

SP - 93

EP - 117

JO - Scandinavian Political Studies

JF - Scandinavian Political Studies

IS - 2

ER -