The Making of Conservative Aspirations in Rural Youth Clubs: Moving beyond Deprivation-Based Perspectives in Explaining Working-Class Support for the Radical Right

Studies often interpret working-class support for radical right parties as an individual deficit reaction to economic and cultural insecurity, or political skepticism. These explanations, however, cannot explain why class fractions unaffected by precarization vote for radical right parties, especially in rural areas. Based on an ethnography of a rural youth club (RYC) in Switzerland, this article offers an alternative argument. Rather than focusing on individual demographics, it explores how political learning in group interactions shapes political preferences in relation to a social environment. The findings show that support for the radical right stems from moral aspirations grounded in a conservative social order. These conservative aspirations define a “good” citizen as someone who works hard, votes and earns their place, in contrast to cultural elites and disadvantaged groups perceived as living off others. These results encourage us to move beyond individual deprivation-based perspectives and instead consider the role of political socialization.