From the Streets to the Voting Booth: The Electoral Effect of Grassroots Mobilization Against the Far Right

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Abstract
Is anti-far-right grassroots mobilization effective? Scholars studying the far right have focused extensively on the causes and consequences of far-right success but have paid little attention to what citizens and civil society can do to tackle this phenomenon. Focusing on the surge of Sardine (the Sardines), an anti-far-right social movement, during the 2020 Italian regional elections, we test whether grassroots mobilization is an effective tool to curb far-right parties’ electoral performance. Employing municipality-level data on electoral results, Sardines rallies, and far-right events, we exploit a difference-in-differences design to identify the effect of local exposure to Sardine mobilization on the municipal electoral performance of far-right parties. The results suggest that local exposure to a Sardines event has a strong negative effect on far-right electoral results.

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