Source: Own elaboration based on post-electoral survey, CIS April 2019. For more information, see the authors’ accompanying study in Political Research Exchange. Note: ++ indicates there was a positive relationship that was significant at a 95% confidence level + indicates a positive relationship significant at a 90% confidence level - indicates a negative relationship significant at 95% – indicates a negative relationship significant at 90% n/s indicates there was no statistically significant relationship. Our results are summarised in the table below. Note: For more information, see the authors’ accompanying study in Political Research Exchange.īut what of VOX’s electorate? In our study, we use national level post-electoral survey data to establish what the motivations are behind voting for Vox. Not only is Vox more reliant on populist rhetoric than the party’s contemporaries within the Spanish party system (including Spain’s left-wing populist Unidas Podemos), but populism is also identified as a core and salient aspect for the party.įigure 2: Vox’s populism compared to other Spanish parties In addition to the substantive spatial gap between Vox and the other Spanish parties in the multidimensional axes of party competition, the expert respondents of the Global Party Survey also highlight the significance of populist rhetoric for the party (Figure 2). Note: Data points scaled by vote share in the April 2019 election. Across both the conventional left-right economic axis, as well as the socio-cultural (GAL-TAN) axis, the party seeks to fill the ideological space that is closest to the polar ends on the economic right-wing and conservative space.įigure 1: Vox’s ideology compared to other Spanish parties ![]() As shown in Figure 1 below, it is clear that the policy supply promoted by Vox is notably distinct from that of the other four main Spanish parties: the conservative Partido Popular (Popular Party – PP), the liberal Ciudadanos (Citizens – Cs), the social-democratic Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party – PSOE), and the radical left Unidas Podemos (We can – UP). ![]() Relying on expert survey data from the Global Party Survey ran by Pippa Norris, we mapped Vox’s political offering with the wider Spanish party system. There is little doubt that Vox perceives itself as the purest representative of the former, with the party portraying itself as the sole protector of ordinary Spanish people’s interests, the primary defender against what it terms la dictadura progre (progressive dictatorship) and the only party that promises, à la Trump, to “make Spain great again”. However, discursively it employs a populist rhetoric that, with allusions to pre-democratic Spain, depicts Spanish society as divided into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups: the morally just and virtuous La España viva (Spain alive) and the morally corrupt La Anti-España (Anti-Spain), which the virtuous Spain must fight against. In this sense, nativism is clearly the main ideology of Vox. Additionally, the party clearly advocates a defence of traditional Spanish values and of the Spanish nation vis à vis internal and external threats (secessionists and immigrants, respectively). This is at odds with the welfare-chauvinism advocated by other members of the same party family, like France’s Rassemblement National (formerly Front National). Economically, the party adopts a somewhat conventional conservative agenda that promotes market liberalism, reduced state intervention and cutbacks to the social welfare state. To start from the very beginning, it is clear that Vox belongs to the radical right, this being self-evident in its programmatic platform. Since the emergence of Vox in the December 2018 Andalusian elections, at least two questions have been crucial for those interested in political parties and electoral behaviour in Spain, namely: who are Vox, and who are their voters? In a recent publication, we try to shed some light on these relevant questions by clarifying where Vox falls within the Spanish party system, and which sociodemographic, political, economic and attitudinal characteristics have led some citizens to vote for it. ![]() Turnbull-Dugarte and Andrés Santana present a comprehensive assessment of the party’s ideological makeup and the key features of its electoral base. The populist radical right party Vox has emerged as a major force in Spanish politics, but what characterises the party and its voters? Drawing on a new study, José Rama, Stuart J.
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