An Empirical Analysis of the Variance in the Left-Right Ideology of National Independence Parties in Canada and Western Europe.

There is a significant degree of variety in the left-right ideological positioning of national independence parties in both Canada and Western Europe. This paper runs a quantitative analysis of 167 cases of national independence parties standing in regional elections and 149 cases of national independence parties standing in statewide elections. These cases are spread over a 20-year period, between 2000 and 2019, coming from 25 regions in 10 countries. This paper tests four hypotheses relating to the left-right ideological positioning of these parties. These four hypotheses are related to unemployment, a country's head of state, a country's level of military spending and statewide levels of immigration. This paper has found evidence that higher levels of unemployment, higher levels of military spending and a monarchic head of state can result in regions having more left-wing national independence parties. This paper has also found that, in statewide elections, higher levels of immigration can push national independence parties ideologically rightward.