The activation of nationalist attitudes: how voters respond to far-right parties’ campaigns

The rise of far-right parties represents one of the main challenges for European democracies. Previous research has shed light both on their electoral strategies, and on the nationalist attitudes of their electorates. Yet, the causal mechanism by which far-right party discourse activates voters’ preferences is still unclear. This paper revisits the literature on campaign effects in the context of challenger party entry, and argues that the activation of attitudes on ‘wedge issues’, such as immigration and European integration, is the outcome of a process of learning and partisan updating. The empirical analyses focus on the electoral breakthrough of far-right parties in Britain and Germany, and rely on three-wave panel surveys to address reverse causation. Results show that voters update their vote intentions in light of their Eurosceptic and xenophobic attitudes only when they learn the policy positions of the far-right party vis-à-vis the other parties. These findings shed light on the nature of far-right party support, set a scope condition for research on priming and persuasion in election campaigns, and contribute to normative debates about the functioning of electoral democracy.