Social capital and support for populist radical right parties: A multilevel analysis of a household panel in the UK

Abstract

This study examines how social capital moderates the associations between regional economic and cultural externalities and support for populist radical right parties (PRRPs). While demand-side research has documented the role of economic and cultural grievances, the social mechanisms that condition the response to these shocks remain less understood. This study addresses this gap by distinguishing between bonding, bridging, and linking social capital and by applying a multilevel analysis to capture the cross-level interplay between social structures and macro-level changes. Drawing on the UK Household Longitudinal Study and UK Census data, the findings demonstrate that bonding social capital amplifies the positive association between grievances and PRRP support, whereas both bridging and linking social capital tend to attenuate these relationships. These interactive patterns remain consistent even when party choices, including Conservative, Labour, and UKIP, are explicitly differentiated. By shifting the focus to these contingent associations, this study refines conventional demand-side explanations and highlights how the social fabric of communities determines the political consequences of economic and cultural shocks.