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A Research Note on Identity Politics in the Older British Commonwealth
Author(s) -
Mayer Lawrence C.,
Justice Jeff W.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.259
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 1555-5623
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.2003.tb00891.x
Subject(s) - salience (neuroscience) , commonwealth , politics , nationalism , identity (music) , religiosity , mainstream , secession , national identity , political economy , political science , sociology , identity politics , brexit , gender studies , social psychology , law , psychology , european union , economics , physics , acoustics , cognitive psychology , economic policy
The gap created by declining support for mainstream parties in western democracies, due to the declining salience of class and religiosity, has been filled by an emerging category of parties that has been identified as radical right. Drawing data from two comparable Older Commonwealth systems, we show that these parties do not clearly fit on the traditional left to right dimension. Support for these parties is associated with a sense of identity, of belonging to a folk—issues that are distinct from those associated with the traditional right. The same set of attitudes predicts support for these identity parties whether the folk is defined at the national or the subsystem level. Identity parties may promote nationalism or secession.