Replication Data for: Left to Right: Labor Market Policy, Labor Market Status, and Political Affinities

In recent decades, there has been a gradual decline in working class organizations, including social democratic parties and trade unions, and an increase in support for populist radical right parties across western democracies. These trends have a plausible common cause: an increase in labor market insecurity associated with deindustrialization may cause disenchantment with establishment organizations and support for politicians who criticize them. In this paper, I develop and test a theory of how individual labor market status interacts with labor market policies to affect attitudes toward trade unions and populist radical right parties. I find that individuals with insecure employment status become less likely to support trade unions and more likely to support populist radical right parties as employment protection for secure workers increases. This effect is offset somewhat by spending on active labor market policies. I find evidence for these predictions in data for 27 OECD countries from 1995-2009.