Occupational Segregation and Right-Wing Populist Party Preference in Rural and Urban Areas

This article analyses the influence of occupational segregation on the rise of right-wing populist tendencies in rural areas. With the decline of industrial occupations and the advance of knowledge-based jobs, it is assumed that the way of life, values and attitudes of the working class are increasingly under pressure. The consequence of this is a value-based backlash among the working class, which manifests itself in an antipathy towards the values and lifestyle of the urban elite (Goodwin 2023). This is accompanied by an increasing preference for right-wing populist parties that explicitly oppose the way of life of these elites. The present study employs longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP 1992-2020) to investigate three key research questions. Firstly, it examines the extent to which the labour force is increasingly concentrated in rural areas over time. Secondly, it assesses whether the working class is more likely to prefer right-wing populist parties than other class positions over time. Thirdly, it analyses whether differences between urban and rural areas with regard to the preference of right-wing populist parties are due to these two factors (a and b).