Blinded by Out-group Hatred. Why does Radical Party Entry Reduce its Voters’ Satisfaction with Democracy?

Abstract

This paper examines why the electoral breakthrough of radical parties further reinforces democratic dissatisfaction among their voters. Against the prevailing utilitarian framework, we argue that an affective response to the out-group instead of the in-group party results better explains changes in democratic evaluations under growing affective polarization. To evaluate our theory, we combine observational, experimental and qualitative evidence from a sample of Éric Zemmour voters, the emerging radical right candidate who disrupted the 2022 French elections. Our findings confirm that Zemmour voters became the least satisfied with democracy after the elections and provide evidence of a negative affective response to the out-group (Macron) win as the driving mechanism. The qualitative analysis confirms the causal path from negative feelings toward the winner to questioning the democratic system. Contrary to representation theories, our paper suggests that the institutional inclusion of marginalized political groups may only exacerbate dissatisfaction in highly polarized electoral contexts.