The Effect of Terrorist Attacks on Electoral Support for Extreme Right-wing Parties in Europe
Open Access
Author:
Hines, Lisa Carolyn
Area of Honors:
International Politics
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
David Lynn Lowery, Thesis Supervisor Dr. Gretchen G Casper, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Terrorism Europe Elections Voting
Abstract:
Extreme right-wing parties are on the rise in Europe. Academic scholarship has provided a number of explanations for this phenomenon. The objective of this thesis is to provide an alternative explanation and determine if terrorist attacks affect the electoral support for extreme right-wing parties in Europe. I hypothesize that terrorist attacks increase the electoral support for extreme right-wing parties. The research in this paper approaches this question through analysis of the percent voteshare gained by extreme right-wing parties in seven countries from 1993-2011. The multiple interrupted time series analysis shows terrorist attacks do not increase support for extreme right-wing parties, though there were mixed results about the effect of one attack, September 11, 2001.
