The everyday realities of financial and work insecurity that drive right-and left-wing populism
In Insecurity Politics, Lorenza Antonucci examines the lived, everyday experiences that underpin political disaffection. Countering the reductive portrayals of populist voters as left-behind outsiders, Antonucci focuses on the ordinary, yet increasingly precarious, realities of work and financial instability as key to understanding the surge in populist support in both right-and left-wing politics. Drawing on robust comparative quantitative and qualitative analyses across nine European countries, Insecurity Politics describes the microlevel material and cultural dynamics that drive anti-establishment politics. It finds that dissatisfaction with work and a growing sense of financial insecurity fuel populist sentiments.
Antonucci maps the evolving landscape of insecurity in contemporary Europe, tracing its roots to structural transformations of welfare states and deep-seated cultural shifts. Proposing an original framework that combines cultural and economic explanations, the book shows how economic, social, and political factors shape receptivity to anti-establishment politics. Moving beyond conventional wisdom that attributes today's populism to cultural backlash or globalization, Antonucci addresses a critical blind spot in current research. But Insecurity Politics offers more than a mere diagnosis; it also argues that a nuanced understanding of populist attitudes could inform a renewed political agenda-one more attuned to the complex realities of people's lives. Lorenza Antonucci is associate professor of sociology at the University of Cambridge and was the German Kennedy Memorial Fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University from 2022 to 2023. Antonucci's work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Le Monde and on the BBC. "Insecurity Politics skillfully marries political and cultural analysis to offer a refreshing multidimensional analysis of the growing popularity of the rise of populist politics. Connecting symbolic boundaries and political cleavages with experiences of insecurity at the micro level, Antonucci sheds new light on the dynamics fostered by macrolevel structural changes. This important book should be read broadly by sociologists and political scientists alike."-Michèle Lamont, past president of the American Sociological Association and author of The Dignity of Working Men
"Insecurity Politics is the most comprehensive study of its subject to date. Lorenza Antonucci explores the economic, social, and political dimensions of insecurity in nine European countries since the 1980s, illuminating the ways in which they have interacted to produce the populist politics of the past decade. Antonucci deploys a rich mix of intensive case studies and quantitative evidence to illuminate this most pressing phenomenon of our time. Of particular interest, Insecurity Politics shows how the policies adopted by mainstream parties have contributed to the politics that has eroded their support and that they now decry. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand today's politics-and what to do about it."-Ian Shapiro, author of After the Fall: From the End of History to the Crisis of Democracy, How Politicians Broke Our World
"Insecurity Politics is a much-needed addition to the literature on populism and the contemporary challenges facing democracies. Antonucci's book provides an empirically grounded and theoretically sophisticated understanding of insecurity, showing that it is a fundamentally socioeconomic phenomenon: grounded in changing economic conditions but encompassing destabilizing social changes as well. By so doing, Insecurity Politics helps us better understand how economic, social, and cultural factors have interacted to create a breeding ground for a politics of discontent and division over the past decades."-Sheri Berman,
