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Within the last few decades the European political landscape changed significantly with the rise of extreme right and far left populist parties in countries of Western Europe and various extremist and populist parties in countries of Eastern Europe. The appeals of these parties differ, but their commonality is that they represent a large group of disaffected citizens who view themselves as losers of changes brought by deindustrialization, European integration and globalization. My proposed research aims to offer a theoretically driven empirical investigation of the impact of welfare state capacity to respond to social and economic changes generated by these processes on the rise of radical political appeals and the support for radical political parties. I expect that the strength of populist appeals and support for populist political parties across Europe is strongly affected by the failure of welfare states to address problems of economic insecurity, inequality and social exclusion. The research will provide a comprehensive mapping of the performance of European welfare states in responding to challenges of post-industrial period with respect to employment, social inequality, the handling of new social risks and the integration of immigrants. It will also provide a comprehensive mapping of radical and populist political actors, their appeals and their electoral performance across European countries. Furthermore, the research will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the impact welfare state performance; exposure of countries to economic globalization; immigration and the extent of benefits brought by European integration have on support for radical populist parties, national political systems and European integration. It will rely on multilevel methods to assess the impact of macro-level variables on variations in individual-level behavior and attitudes across European countries.
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