Grievance Pathways to Authoritarian Support

The literature on the "left-behind" links socioeconomic and cultural marginalization to political discontent, yet some parts of the explanatory framework remain diffuse. While often invoked to explain support for populist radical-right parties, the concept frequently conflates distinct grievances and their divergent political consequences. This study proposes that a critical, under-specified consequence of feeling left behind is the mobilization of authoritarian support—a preference for strong, order-asserting leadership seen as a corrective to systemic failure and perceived group decline. Moving beyond bundled explanations, we analytically separate different dimensions of left-behindness at the individual level and, drawing on original survey data from five European democracies (Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom), we map which specific grievance pathways correlate with authoritarian attitudes. Overall, this analysis looks to reframe the political repercussions of left-behind status, clarifying how differentiated experiences of loss and disenfranchisement structure the demand for authoritarian solutions in contemporary European politics.