The Role of Cultural Capital and Stigma in Anti-Establishment Politics

Liberal democracies are marked by growing discontent among large parts of the electorate. Dr. Kjell Noordzij, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam (the Netherlands), will present two studies that illuminate the social dynamics underlying this discontent. The first study investigates why members of the lower class increasingly prefer right-wing populists over establishment politicians—a trend increasingly interpreted as a matter of popular taste. Using unique Dutch survey data, including an Implicit Association Test, it theorizes and empirically demonstrates that low cultural capital—both declarative and non-declarative—leads to feelings of cultural distance, a distaste for mainstream politics, and a sense of political misrecognition. The second study examines the role of stigma in politics, exploring how social discrediting can attract or deter individuals from supporting anti-establishment parties. Using high-quality Dutch survey data, this research introduces a new multi-item scale to measure the prevalence and alleged causes and consequences of experienced political stigma. Together, these studies deepen our understanding of how class, status, and recognition shape anti-establishment politics in contemporary democracies.