CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Changelia, Kocha |
|---|---|
| Title | Does Immigration Matter? Claiming Ownership, Priming Salience: Far-Right Electoral Success in Western Europe |
| Summary | Over the past two decades, the resurgence of far-right parties in Western Europe has sparked extensive scholarly inquiry, particularly around immigration's role in shaping electoral outcomes. While much of the literature has emphasized anti-immigration sentiment as a key driver, empirical evidence remains mixed. This study investigates far-right success in Austria and Germany through a combined lens of issue salience, issue ownership, and policy convergence. Using a mixed- methods approach that draws on the Eurobarometer, AUTNES, GLES, and the Comparative Manifesto Project, it examines how the interaction between immigration salience and perceived party competence influences individual-level vote choice. The study also introduces a novel measurement of immigration policy convergence to assess how mainstream parties' positioning affects far-right gains. Findings show that immigration salience alone does not account for far-right support; rather, electoral success is conditional upon perceived ownership of the issue. Voters are significantly more likely to support far-right parties when immigration is both salient to them and viewed as an issue that these parties “own.” In parallel, while policy convergence by mainstream parties can sometimes reduce far-right appeal, it may also enhance its legitimacy when convergence appears insincere or fails to shift ownership. These results underscore the importance of integrating salience and ownership dynamics into models of political behavior and party competition. The study contributes to the existing literature by providing an empirically grounded explanation for far-right success that moves beyond static measures of public sentiment. |
| Supervisor | Robert Sata |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/changelia_kocha.pdf |
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