Quality of Life and Populist Radical Right Attitudes: Evidence from Italy

Fitting into the literature on the geography of the populist radical right (PRR), we investigate how places’ quality of life (QOL) correlates with PRR attitudes and voting behaviour in Italy. We built a dataset by merging the QOL measure from the 24 ORE Group with the 2022 ITANES (Italian National Election Studies) survey. Using this merged dataset, our multilevel regression models reveal that (1) both lower and declining QOL are substantively associated with stronger nativist sentiments. (2) The correlations between QOL and other PRR attitudes (populism and authoritarianism) are less consistent. (3) QOL is not statistically significantly related to propensity to vote for the main Italian PRR party, Fratelli d’Italia. Hence, this paper suggests that scapegoating immigrants may stem from both poor and deteriorating QOL in one’s residential area, irrespective of various individual- and contextual-level factors. The study concludes by discussing its broader implications, limitations, and directions for future research.