Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
5-2010
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Political Science
Committee Chair
Gainous, Jason
Subject
Right-wing extremists--Germany; Political culture--Germany; Germany--Politics and government--1990-; Voting--Germany
Abstract
Despite twenty years of political reunification Germany remains a politically, socially, and economically divided country. This has fuelled inequalities, which are used by extreme political parties to garner votes from citizens who have become disappointed with the effects of reunification. I aim to examine voter behavior in eastern and western Germany in respect to extreme right-wing parties. Furthermore, I isolated specific factors, such as unemployment and immigration, and test their impacts on latent support for right-wing extremist parties in the two regions. Using Politbarometer 2005 data, I employed logistic regressions to examine voter support for extreme right-wing parties. The analysis shows a significant positive impact from dissatisfaction with democracy and levels of conflicts with immigrants on support for extreme right-wing parties and supports the claim that extreme right-wing parties have found more success in eastern Germany by focusing on some the by-products of reunification, such as xenophobia and dissatisfaction with democracy.
Recommended Citation
Morgan, Carolyn Marie, "Politically divided : a comparative analysis of German right-wing extremist voter support." (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1007.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/1007
