Explaining the Trend in Extreme Right‐Wing Voting: Germany 1989–1998.

Support for German extreme right‐wing parties fluctuated strongly in the 1990s, reaching its highest level of 8.7 per cent in September 1992. Support for these parties also varied between regions. In this paper, we attempt to explain this variation over time and region using individual and contextual characteristics. Hypotheses formulated at the individual and contextual levels were tested by means of multi‐level logistic regression, using monthly surveys conducted over the period 1989–1998 (N=114,798). The results show that extreme right‐wing popularity is greater in periods when the number of asylum seekers is high, whereas the unemployment level does not increase support for these parties. At the individual level, we found that unemployed people, manual workers, self‐employed people, and young people, as well as the lower educated and non‐religious, were more likely to support extreme right‐wing parties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]