Abstract

The article aims to ascertain whether or not Paul Sniderman et al.'s ("The Outsider") 1994 findings remain true in 2001: did voters' racial/ethnic prejudices help the right win parliamentary elections? Secondary analysis of data drawn from a recent survey appear to confirm the original model. Firstly, hostility towards immigrants seems to favour voting for the right. Secondly, this relationship is not balanced, in that the electorates' traits asymmetrically influence their reactions to the two major political platforms. In particular, centre-right voters are relatively compact in their support for greater repression of immigration, whereas centre-left voters adopt more heterogeneous positions, with less educated voters being particularly receptive to calls for repression. This means that political proposals based on guaranteeing greater social order and fighting immigration shift votes from left to right, whereas there is no shift in the opposite direction.