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The AfD electorate in Germany : analysing different drivers in determining AfD votes in the German federal election 2017

Jörres, Paula Maria Madeleine (2020) The AfD electorate in Germany : analysing different drivers in determining AfD votes in the German federal election 2017.

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Abstract:The founding of the “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) in 2013 and their just barely missed entry into the German parliament surprised the German political landscape. Just four years later during the election in 2017 the AfD, as first populist right-wing party after 1945, made it into the German parliament with 12,5% of the votes. There was uncertainty among political observers on how the AfD managed to build such a large electorate in such a short period of time. Therefore, the present research paper is focusing on the importance of populist attitudes in relation to other drivers, in determining AfD votes in the German federal election in 2017. By conducting a binary logistic regression analysis based on the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) dataset from 2017 it will be analyzed if there is a significant relationship between the dependent variable “voting the AfD” and the three independent variables “populist attitudes”, “Euroscepticism” and “xenophobia”. In the data analysis it becomes apparent that all drivers have an influence on determining AfD votes, however not populist attitudes are the biggest driver, but xenophobic attitudes are. This underlines the assumption, that the electorate of the AfD is not a short-term phenomenon, but a development, routed in specific ideological, social and political conceptions.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:89 political science
Programme:Management Society and Technology BSc (56654)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/82396
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