Beyond the cultural backlash: exploring diverse pathways to authoritarian populism in Europe

Abstract

This article critically examines the cultural backlash theory proposed by Norris and Inglehart [Cultural Backlash] to explain the rise of authoritarian populism in the US and Europe. While the theory emphasizes the conservative mobilization against progressive values, we argue that the success of authoritarian populism in Europe cannot be attributed solely to a cultural backlash. We contend that different European countries have unique historical contexts and older, unresolved conflicts are pivotal to understand the rise of authoritarian populist parties in the European context. By employing EVS-data from 2017-18, we analyse case studies from Hungary, Italy, Norway, and Poland. Challenging the "one-size-fits-all" approach, our study demonstrates that older cleavages are essential to understand the success of these parties and highlights the need to consider different variables and unresolved conflicts within specific national contexts when explaining the success of authoritarian populism in Europe.