Welfare Chauvinism in Populist Radical Right Platforms: The Role of Redistributive Justice Principles.

Welfare chauvinism has become an important element in the agenda of the populist radical right. This article proposes a novel argument to explain variation in the strength of welfare chauvinist appeals across social policy programmes. It theorizes that the redistributive justice principles (equity, equality, and need) that underpin a social programme matter. Equality- and need-based programmes are more likely to contradict a nativist worldview in principle or practice, whereas equity-based schemes are less vulnerable to welfare chauvinistic appeals. As a consequence, welfare chauvinism should be targeted at social policies that provide universal or means-tested benefits. Insurance-based systems are more likely to be immune. This argument is tested through a qualitative content analysis of populist radical right election manifestos in four West European democracies. The results show that insurance-based systems (pensions, unemployment) are less likely to attract welfare chauvinism, whereas universal healthcare and means-tested social assistance programmes are more prone to draw nativist appeals. Universal family allowances, however, are less likely to attract welfare chauvinism than predicted by the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]