Political distrust and right-wing populist party voting in Australia

ABSTRACT While declining political trust has been given much attention, the behavioural implications of declining political trust have not yet been investigated extensively and the literature also shows the varying effects of political trust on support for extreme and populist parties across contexts. This article focuses on the decline of political trust in Australia from 1998 to 2016 and its effect on Australian voting behaviour. Multinomial logit estimations are performed using individual-level survey data from seven Australian federal elections. Our study provides evidence that political distrust can unite all successful right-wing populist parties and act as a moderating source to raise votes for right-wing populist parties in the elections. The study further demonstrates that right-wing populist parties can experience electoral success beyond mobilising anti-immigration sentiments.