Local cohesion and radical right support: The case of the Swiss People’s Party

Radical right parties have become effective electoral competitors in many parts of Western Europe yet failed to achieve success in others. Much recent scholarship seeks to understand variation in radical right support. Here, we argue that local social cohesion boosts these parties’ vote shares. We use Swiss census data at the municipal level to measure local cohesion, drawing on indicators of residents’ commuting patterns, linguistic similarities and home ownership. Regression analysis shows that social cohesion is a positive predictor of local level support for the Swiss People’s Party, but not for any other major party. Hierarchical logit models combining aggregate cohesion measures with survey data demonstrate this contextual effect on individuals’ vote choices.

► We show that the Swiss radical right does best in municipalities characterized by high levels of social cohesion.
► Cohesion’s effect is conditioned by local unemployment rate and the presence of immigrants in the area.
► Social cohesion does not benefit any other major Swiss party.
► Hierarchical logit models show this contextual effect on individuals’ vote choices.
► Analysis of variance reveals that 66% of the variation in SVP support is located at the municipal level.