Inequality and anti-globalization backlash by political parties

Does inequality fuel anti-globalization backlash? This paper answers this question by analyzing how income inequality affects the embrace or eschew of globalization by political parties. It focuses on party opposition to and support for trade openness, European-Union integration, and general internationalism in all party platforms of 22 advanced-industrial democracies between 1960 and 2008. The analysis considers how and under what conditions inequality affects such position-taking. The main finding is that inequality tends to increase parties’ anti-globalization backlash, an effect that does not significantly differ across party families or globalization exposure but does get diminished with more generous redistributional policies. These findings clarify the nature and origins of anti-EU and other aspects of anti-globalization backlash, and suggest how socio-economic conditions may be central to such backlash.