On the Electoral Persistence of Parties of the Right

Abstract

A puzzle in the political behavior of European mass publics is that successive cohorts of young people enter the electorate with higher levels of support for the left than those preceeding them, yet the overall electoral strength of parties of the right remains relatively constant through time. Electoral behavior can be volatile, and support for the right over any particular time span is likely to be increasing in some countries and stable or decreasing in others. Yet, given the leftist orientations of the young, generational replacement of the electorate implies an inevitable decline in support for parties of the right. Why has this not taken place? The reasons are undoubtedly various and complex. We will examine several explanations for which the Eurobarometers provide an excellent source of data.