We Were the Robots: Automation and Voting Behavior in Western Europe

Anelli, Massimo; Colantone, Italo; Stanig, Piero

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3428830

Cited by 14 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The loss of jobs and downward wage pressures caused by automation may intensify the distributive consequences of globalization. Anelli et al (2019) show that higher exposure to robot adoption in Western Europe increases support for extreme right parties, both at the regional and at the individual level. 5 In addition to the introduction of robots into the production process, economists have identified certain jobs as being more susceptible to automation than others.…”

Section: Technological Innovation and Political Changementioning

confidence: 91%

“…In addition, I adapt Das and Hilgenstock (2018) in constructing a weighted routine task intensity index at the regional level by leveraging Eurostat’s Labor Force Survey. Finally, I followed Anelli et al (2019) in creating an automation exposure measure by using the operational stock of robots in manufacturing from data by the International Federation of Robotics. Full variable definitions and calculations are described in Supplemental Appendix A.…”

Section: Regional Level Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…And I add a variable for the global financial crisis since its effect in Europe was strong and extended. While other studies have investigated some of these measures in isolation (e.g., Anelli et al, 2019), none seems to directly compare globalization shocks with one another, nor examine technological pressures, nor look at the interaction with the financial crisis. In addition to the extreme right, I also look at how globalization has affected support for center left and right parties as well as more extreme left parties.…”

Section: Regional Level Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Voting for Populism in Europe: Globalization, Technological Change, and the Extreme Right

Milner

2021

Comparative Political Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

What are the political consequences of economic globalization? Since the 1990s, scholars of European party politics have noted the rise of extremist parties, especially right-wing populist ones, and the decline of mainstream left and right parties. This paper focuses on the association between globalization in terms of trade, capital and labor flows, technological change, and popular support for extreme right parties. I examine these relations at the regional and individual level in 15 advanced industrial democracies in Western Europe from 1990 to 2018. Globalization, especially in the form of trade, is associated with growing vote shares for extreme right parties. Technological change in the form of automation increases support for extreme right parties. The financial crisis enhanced support for populist right parties and strengthened the negative relationship between trade shocks and declining support for mainstream left parties. And the use of social welfare compensation seems unable to dampen these political trends.1

show abstract

Section: Technological Innovation and Political Changementioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Regional Level Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Regional Level Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Voting for Populism in Europe: Globalization, Technological Change, and the Extreme Right

Milner

2021

Comparative Political Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, this study provides an outlook on the possible contours of a future politics of the welfare state, in which a new political cleavage between the winners and losers of technological advancement might become central. Recent empirical work on this topic has already shown that those on the losing end of this divide may be more susceptible to the siren calls of right-wing populist parties (Anelli et al, 2019; Frey et al, 2018; Milner, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dealing with Technological Change: Social Policy Preferences and Institutional Context

Busemeyer

Tober

2022

Comparative Political Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How does technological change affect social policy preferences across different institutional contexts? In this paper, we argue that individuals who perceive high levels of technology-related employment risks prefer passive policies like unemployment benefits over active measures like retraining in order to satisfy the need for immediate compensation in the case of job loss. At the same time, general support for passive (active) policy solutions to technological change should be significantly lower (higher) in countries where generous compensation schemes already exist. As the perception of technology-related employment risks increases, however, we expect that social policy preferences among high-risk individuals should converge across different welfare state contexts. We use novel data from a diverse set of 24 OECD countries that specifically measure preferred social policy solutions to technological change in a constrained choice scenario. Applying statistical methods that explicitly model the trade-off faced by individuals, we find evidence in line with our theoretical expectations.

show abstract

“…The individual experience or perception of EI has been discussed as the result of an increased vulnerability and exposure to risks coming from the outside. For example, individuals more exposed to threat of automation are more likely to support nationalistic and right‐wing parties (Anelli et al ., 2019; Im et al ., 2019), express populist values (Iversen and Soskice, 2019), and vote for Donald Trump in 2016 (Frey et al ., 2018). Perceived competition with immigrants has been positively associated with support for far‐right candidates in France (Edo et al ., 2019), and contributed to a small but significant increase in the United Kingdom Independent Party (UKIP)'s vote (Becker and Fetzer, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic insecurity, racial anxiety, and right‐wing populism

Rebechi

Rohde

2022

Review of Income and Wealth

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper studies the roles of economic insecurity (EI) and attitudes to racial inequality as predictors of voting patterns in the 2016 US election. Using data from the 2016 Voter Survey, we show that both perceptions of EI and concerns over anti-White discrimination are significant correlates of Republican support. Effect sizes on racial attitudes are much larger than those found on EI, although the effects of insecurity become larger when accounting for both short-term and long-term economic stress. We also show there is very little heterogeneity in the effects of insecurity across racial groups-both Whites and minorities are more likely to vote Republican when experiencing short-term insecurity. Our results suggest that policies that mitigate micro-level economic risk may lessen support for populist political candidates.

show abstract

We Were the Robots: Automation and Voting Behavior in Western Europe

Cited by 14 publications

References 20 publications

Voting for Populism in Europe: Globalization, Technological Change, and the Extreme Right

Voting for Populism in Europe: Globalization, Technological Change, and the Extreme Right

Dealing with Technological Change: Social Policy Preferences and Institutional Context

Economic insecurity, racial anxiety, and right‐wing populism

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About