Economic Populist Sovereignism and Electoral Support for Radical Right-Wing Populism

Sovereignism is at the crux of the current wave of radical right-wing populism (RRP). Populist parties advocate ‘taking back control’ and generally do so in the name of the ‘people’, pledging to restore their economic well-being. This paper argues that populism and sovereignism are inherently connected in RRP politics through a set of values that emphasise popular and national sovereignty. To test the empirical validity of our proposition, we focus on two established European RRPPs, namely the Rassemblement National (RN) in France and the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) and use data from an original survey in each country. We find that while RN and SVP voters diverge in general economic orientations, they share similar economic populist sovereignist values that significantly shape electoral support for those parties. These findings suggest that economic populist sovereignism may represent an important driver of support for the RRP, alongside other correlates of RRP voting, such as perceived immigration threat