Close to Home

Jennifer Fitzgerald is co-author of Partisan Families (Cambridge, 2007), awarded the International Society of Political Psychology's Alexander George Book Award for best book in political psychology. Her other accolades include a Fulbright Award to conduct research in France, the University of Chicago's Morton Kaplan Prize, and repeated teaching awards at the University of Colorado Boulder where she is Associate Professor of Political Science. Her research has been published in the Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Political Behavior, World Politics, Electoral Studies and International Migration Review, among others.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Theorizing localism and radical right support; 3. Localism and radical right support in Europe; 4. Who are the localists that support the radical right?; 5. Neighborly ties, local autonomy, and SVP support in Switzerland; 6. Local autonomy shifts, local cohesion, and Le Pen support in France; 7. Local political salience and radical right party success in OECD countries; 8. Conclusion.

'Close to Home succeeds in overturning what has become a pretty static view of radical right voters. Jennifer Fitzgerald's central contribution is to theorize localism and measure its impact through rigorous statistical tests. Fascinatingly, it turns out that localism works more through ideational mechanisms - feelings toward one's immediate surrounding - than through interpersonal contact. Imagined localism increases support for the radical right, but actual interactions with neighbors decreases it. And perhaps most interestingly, Fitzgerald shows that localism has helped with two constituencies in which the radical right has historically performed poorly: female voters and voters who identify as left-of-center. This is a novel, sophisticated, and compelling take on one of the most important political dynamics in advanced industrial societies.' David Art, Tufts University, Massachusetts