Subjective Well-Being and Populist Voting in the Netherlands

This study analyzes whether subjective well-being can explain the populist vote in the Netherlands. Using data on voting intention and subjective well-being for over 7700 individuals from 2008 to 2019—a period during which populist parties became well-established in the Netherlands—we estimate logit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of happiness studies Vol. 24; no. 7; pp. 2331 - 2352
Main Authors Burger, Martijn J., Eiselt, Susanna
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.10.2023
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Democracy
Economics
Globalization
Happiness
Immigration
Legislatures
Minority & ethnic groups
Neighborhoods
Personality and Social Psychology
Philosophy
Political campaigns
Political systems
Populism
Positive Psychology
Quality of Life Research
Random effects
Research Paper
Rule of law
Social Sciences
Society
Threats
Voter behavior
Voters
Well being
Subjective well-being
The Netherlands
Populism
Voting
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Summary:This study analyzes whether subjective well-being can explain the populist vote in the Netherlands. Using data on voting intention and subjective well-being for over 7700 individuals from 2008 to 2019—a period during which populist parties became well-established in the Netherlands—we estimate logit and multinomial logit random effects regressions. We find evidence of an association between decreased subjective well-being and the probability to vote for a populist party that goes beyond changes in dissatisfaction with society—lack of confidence in parliament, democracy and the economy—and ideological orientation. At the same time, we find no evidence for a relationship between subjective well-being and voting for other non-incumbent parties other than populist parties.
ISSN:1389-4978
1573-7780
DOI:10.1007/s10902-023-00685-9