Need for security and system fairness on the political extremes
We advance and empirically test the idea that people on both the far right and far left will be more likely than political moderates to perceive the system as fair, as long as it serves their heightened needs for security. We argue that political extremists may be especially drawn to systems that of...
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University of Iceland
2015
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2015.11.2.1 https://doaj.org/article/338783ab9d3f40febf4cbaad6b8060d5 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:338783ab9d3f40febf4cbaad6b8060d5 2023-05-15T16:51:32+02:00 Need for security and system fairness on the political extremes Hulda Þórisdóttir Eva Heiða Önnudóttir 2015-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2015.11.2.1 https://doaj.org/article/338783ab9d3f40febf4cbaad6b8060d5 EN IS eng ice University of Iceland http://www.irpa.is/article/view/2084 https://doaj.org/toc/1670-6803 https://doaj.org/toc/1670-679X 1670-6803 1670-679X doi:10.13177/irpa.a.2015.11.2.1 https://doaj.org/article/338783ab9d3f40febf4cbaad6b8060d5 Stjórnmál og Stjórnsýsla, Vol 11, Iss 2, Pp 115-138 (2015) System fairness left–right extremism need for security political trust Political institutions and public administration (General) JF20-2112 Political science (General) JA1-92 article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2015.11.2.1 2022-12-31T05:09:47Z We advance and empirically test the idea that people on both the far right and far left will be more likely than political moderates to perceive the system as fair, as long as it serves their heightened needs for security. We argue that political extremists may be especially drawn to systems that offer certainty and security. As long as ideological extremists are not alienated from the political system in general, they will, therefore, be especially motivated to see the system as fair, in particular, if extremism is coupled with a heightened need for security. We test this notion using data from Iceland, a country with a wide left–right spread in terms of the political opinions of both parties and people and which was, at the time of the study, still reeling from an economic crisis that strongly affected political trust and threatened people’s sense of security. We analyzed nationally representative data from the European Social Survey in 2012 (N = 752). The results showed a significant three-way interaction between political extremism, the need for security, and political trust in predicting perceived system fairness. The people most likely to perceive the system as fair were political extremists, with relatively high political trust and need for security. The results are discussed in light of context effects and how people on the left and right might have higher needs for security with different threats in mind. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Veftímaritið Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla 11 2 115 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English Icelandic |
topic |
System fairness left–right extremism need for security political trust Political institutions and public administration (General) JF20-2112 Political science (General) JA1-92 |
spellingShingle |
System fairness left–right extremism need for security political trust Political institutions and public administration (General) JF20-2112 Political science (General) JA1-92 Hulda Þórisdóttir Eva Heiða Önnudóttir Need for security and system fairness on the political extremes |
topic_facet |
System fairness left–right extremism need for security political trust Political institutions and public administration (General) JF20-2112 Political science (General) JA1-92 |
description |
We advance and empirically test the idea that people on both the far right and far left will be more likely than political moderates to perceive the system as fair, as long as it serves their heightened needs for security. We argue that political extremists may be especially drawn to systems that offer certainty and security. As long as ideological extremists are not alienated from the political system in general, they will, therefore, be especially motivated to see the system as fair, in particular, if extremism is coupled with a heightened need for security. We test this notion using data from Iceland, a country with a wide left–right spread in terms of the political opinions of both parties and people and which was, at the time of the study, still reeling from an economic crisis that strongly affected political trust and threatened people’s sense of security. We analyzed nationally representative data from the European Social Survey in 2012 (N = 752). The results showed a significant three-way interaction between political extremism, the need for security, and political trust in predicting perceived system fairness. The people most likely to perceive the system as fair were political extremists, with relatively high political trust and need for security. The results are discussed in light of context effects and how people on the left and right might have higher needs for security with different threats in mind. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hulda Þórisdóttir Eva Heiða Önnudóttir |
author_facet |
Hulda Þórisdóttir Eva Heiða Önnudóttir |
author_sort |
Hulda Þórisdóttir |
title |
Need for security and system fairness on the political extremes |
title_short |
Need for security and system fairness on the political extremes |
title_full |
Need for security and system fairness on the political extremes |
title_fullStr |
Need for security and system fairness on the political extremes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Need for security and system fairness on the political extremes |
title_sort |
need for security and system fairness on the political extremes |
publisher |
University of Iceland |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2015.11.2.1 https://doaj.org/article/338783ab9d3f40febf4cbaad6b8060d5 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Stjórnmál og Stjórnsýsla, Vol 11, Iss 2, Pp 115-138 (2015) |
op_relation |
http://www.irpa.is/article/view/2084 https://doaj.org/toc/1670-6803 https://doaj.org/toc/1670-679X 1670-6803 1670-679X doi:10.13177/irpa.a.2015.11.2.1 https://doaj.org/article/338783ab9d3f40febf4cbaad6b8060d5 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2015.11.2.1 |
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Veftímaritið Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
115 |
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