Polarizing Automation
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2021-07-24
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en
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Abstract
Automation poses a mounting political challenge to postindustrial societies. Increasingly, a subset of workers assigned to speci c, routine job tasks are experiencing uneven economic risks with respect to employment and wages. The economic restructuring and subsequent distributional consequences of technological change have produced a reservoir of votes for the radical right. Yet, there have been few systematic attempts to analyze the causal factors behind routine workers' political attitudes. This
phenomenon is analyzed within the framework of current literature on the sources of populist radical right support, with special attention to economic and cultural explanations. Situated within the debate of the causal factors of far-right support, this work explores the potential mechanisms behind what draws routine workers to the political fringes. It is suggested that economic anxiety and cultural insecurity are
inextricably linked by entanglement of occupation and status. Using cross-national survey data from 19 postindustrial European countries, the branches connecting exposure to automation and vote for populist radical right parties is explored. I show that greater exposure to automation induces a classical response to economic risk - demand for state socialism - as well as authoritarian attitudes. While greater risk
from automation and authoritarian attitudes are signi cantly related to populist right support, demand for redistribution is not. This suggests that cultural insecurity, rather than purely economic concerns, motivate routine workers to the right of the libertarian-authoritarian divide. Though there is no strongevidence of a mediation e ect, it appears gaps in status and recognition may be one pathway throughwhich automation inuences political demand.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen