The geography of discontent and resentment: A spatiotemporal analysis of populist radical right voting in Czechia between 1992 and 2021

Abstract

This article analyses the populist radical right in Czechia since the fall of the Communist regime and the democratisation of elections. We categorise given political movements on the basis of relevant theoretical concepts (nativism, populism, authoritarianism) and then analyse spatial patterns of their electoral support to examine the geographical aspects of party replacement. We found substantial differences in the electoral outcomes of the old and the new populist radical right. Nevertheless, we have also observed a considerable convergence of spatial voting patterns between SPR-RSČ and SPD in the latest elections, which suggests a tendency that might prove to be more significant in the future. The main result of this study is the identification of specific places, which, along the contemporary literature nexus, we refer to as “places that are left behind or do not matter”. Such initial recognition might prove vital if we wish to understand places theoretically filled with discontent and resentment that potentially use voting as an act of revolt against the malleably perceived ‘Other’.