Reviewed by Andrew Moravcsik
May/June 2026Published on April 21, 2026
This book argues that the rise of workplace and financial insecurity across Europe explains the recent gains of populist parties on both the left and the right. Antonucci, a sociologist, uses new measures and data to confirm two decades of research showing that globalization, technological change, and austerity undermine socioeconomic stability and social well-being, in turn boosting support for populist parties. The author also shows that populist voters are not, as commonly assumed, socially isolated people. Although the author correctly argues that this finding is entirely consistent with the rise of populist parties on the far left and their calls for more concerted EU social policy, this evidence does not explain why voters are flocking in greater numbers to far-right populist parties—many of which have advanced astonishingly regressive taxation and budgetary programs and hold stridently anti-EU views. Antonucci does not satisfactorily answer the question of why economic discontent pushes voters to the far right.