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The gender gap in voting for far-right parties is significant in many European countries. While most studies focus on how men and women differ in their nationalist and populist attitudes, it is unknown how the socio-economic and political promotion of women is associated with the gender gap in far-right political orientation. The following paper compares the effect of four different spheres of gender equality on this gender gap. By estimating multilevel logit models for more than 25 European countries and testing the mechanism via a socially conservative attitude toward gendered division of work, I find that the visible field of representation in particular - measured by the share of women in parliament and women on boards - is associated with a gender gap in far-right orientation. This paper contributes to the literature in two important ways: first, it combines policy feedback with cultural backlash theory, enlarging the scope of both theories; second, it demonstrates the importance of gender equality policies for the study of the far-right gender gap.

AbstractPrevious studies have shown that economic and political experiences influence the level of satisfaction with democracy; however, they fail to explain whether these experiences have the same effect for everyone, whether there is interindividual variance and where these differences might be rooted. In this article, we investigate these roots of interindividual variance and base our argument on the observation that early experiences in school are formative and influence the effect of economic and political experiences on satisfaction with democracy. We analyze an original representative dataset on the German population to test how school experiences, more precisely equal treatment in school, interact with economic and political experiences in later life and thereby influence satisfaction with democracy. We find that school experiences play a significant role here. Voting for the governing parties especially increases satisfaction with democracy if respondents were treated equally in school. Similarly, past experiences of unemployment in particular decrease people's levels of satisfaction with the political system if they were not treated equally in school. The findings highlight that early experiences made in school can have a relevant influence on satisfaction with democracy in later life.

How do welfare state policies affect the political support for environmental action of economically vulnerable social groups? Two competing hypotheses can be delineated. On the one hand, a synergy logic would imply that welfare state generosity is associated with higher support for environmental action among economically vulnerable groups due to the insecurity reducing effects of the welfare state. On the other hand, a crowding-out logic would suggest that welfare state generosity is associated with lower support for other policy priorities like environmental action. We test these two hypotheses using 2019 Eurobarometer survey data and country-level indicators of welfare state generosity in 22 European countries. We find that the working class and the elderly are particularly opposed to individual and national environmental action and that the welfare state plays a complex moderating role. Consistent with a synergy logic, welfare state generosity increases pro-environmental behaviour among the working class, but its association with more positive attitudes towards national environmental policies is less strong. Consistent with a crowding-out logic, the elderly appear less likely to behave in environmentally friendly ways if retirement benefits are high. To explore the mechanisms behind this association, we show that the working class who struggle to pay their bills are most opposed to environmental action. Overall, economic insecurities are key obstacles for support of environmental actions and the effects of the welfare state depend both on which social group is concerned and whether individual behaviour versus policy preferences are considered.

Previous studies have shown that economic and political experiences influence the level of satisfaction with democracy; however, they fail to explain whether these experiences have the same effect for everyone, whether there is interindividual variance and where these differences might be rooted. In this article, we investigate these roots of interindividual variance and base our argument on the observation that early experiences in school are formative and influence the effect of economic and political experiences on satisfaction with democracy. We analyze an original representative dataset on the German population to test how school experiences, more precisely equal treatment in school, interact with economic and political experiences in later life and thereby influence satisfaction with democracy. We find that school experiences play a significant role here. Voting for the governing parties especially increases satisfaction with democracy if respondents were treated equally in school. Similarly, past experiences of unemployment in particular decrease people's levels of satisfaction with the political system if they were not treated equally in school. The findings highlight that early experiences made in school can have a relevant influence on satisfaction with democracy in later life.

Vor nunmehr dreißig Jahren mündete der durch die friedliche Revolution in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik angestoßene Prozess in der Wiederherstellung der Einheit Deutschlands. Damit fand ein grundlegender Wandlungsprozess statt. Jüngst wurden Stimmen laut, die auf anhaltende Trennlinien zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschland verwiesen. Diese Trennlinien wurden vor allem im Zuge des massiven Zuzugs von Geflüchteten im Jahr 2015 und den daraus resultierenden Veränderungen im Wahlverhalten der Bürgerinnen und Bürger in Ost- und Westdeutschland offenkundig. Die bisherige Forschung sucht die Ursachen der Spaltung hinsichtlich der Solidarität gegenüber Geflüchteten primär in Unterschieden hinsichtlich sozialer Normen, Einstellungen und dem sozioökonomischen Status zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Wie die vorliegende Untersuchung zeigt, entscheidet das Vertrauen der Bürger Ost- und Westdeutschlands in die Bundesregierung, wie stark die Solidaritätsbekundung gegenüber überschuldeten EU-Mitgliedstaaten und Geflüchteten zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschland variiert. Das Hauptaugenmerk gilt hier der Frage, welche Faktoren einen Einfluss darauf haben, ob sich Personen solidarisch mit Geflüchteten und überschuldeten EU-Mitgliedstaaten erklären, und ob sich diese Faktoren zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschland unterscheiden.

In recent years, young adults have increasingly expressed their displeasure with climate policies, arguing that the preservation of the earth for future generations is not secured by existing policies. A growing number of young citizens demands action from politicians and accuses them of a lack of responsiveness. At the same time, young adults are undergoing political socialization, not only within their families, but especially in school, where they learn to lead an independent life and to form their own political opinions. However, what happens if students question the knowledge on the political system that they have acquired in school? This paper analyses how the exogenous "shock" of Fridays for Future has influenced pupils' political attitudes compared to other continuous skills that pupils learn in school. Relying on a unique survey experiment among pupils from different school types and among students in Germany (more than 300 respondents), we find that priming for Fridays for Future and protest participation significantly change perceived political responsiveness and satisfaction with democracy. The results demonstrate that the efforts of schools to prepare young citizens for professional life have no effect, while equal treatment in school is explanatory for varying political satisfaction. Protest participation seems to have a great influence on how the political attitudes of the young cohort develop.

Die vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung geförderte Studie wird gemeinsam von GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, der Universität Heidelberg und dem Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung im Rahmen des Projekts Solikris durchgeführt. Solikris untersucht die Auswirkungen von Krisen auf die Solidaritätsdynamik in Gesellschaft und Politik. Zu diesem Zweck werden Daten zu alltäglichen, sozialen und politischen Themen in Deutschland und Europa im Jahr 2020 erhoben. Der Fokus liegt dabei vor allem auf den Auswirkungen der COVID-19-Pandemie auf die Meinungen und Gefühle der befragten Bürgerinnen und Bürger zum Alltag und zur politischen Situation in ihren jeweiligen Ländern.