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Open research questions in Populism, Right-Wing Movements

642 gap statements mined from Populism, Right-Wing Movements papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 8,043 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • The lack of understanding of how mainstream parties' rhetoric affects social norms. The need for empirical evidence on the impact of mainstream parties' adoption of prejudiced rhetoric. The gap in existing research on the causal relationship between mainstream parties' rhetoric and anti-prejudice norms.

    Credible Prejudice? When and Why Mainstream Party Adoption of Far-Right Rhetoric Weakens Anti-Prejudice Norms · 2026 · DOI

  • One challenge is the gendered barriers to political success faced by women in populist parties. Another challenge is the lack of comprehensive data on women populist leaders, particularly in non-Western contexts. The paper also highlights the challenge of navigating the tension between masculine-coded authority and feminine registers in leadership performance.

    Neither Exceptional nor Moderate: Rethinking Women Populist Leaders · 2026 · DOI

  • Despite growing scholarship on populism, the function of conspiracy theories within right-wing populist discourse remains underexplored.

    Populism and fear in Israel: The case of the judicial reform · 2026 · DOI

  • While rural areas often display more right-leaning attitudes than urban ones, it remains uncertain whether these differences constitute a full-fledged cleavage, as this would require not just socio-structural conflict and political mobilisation but also a collective identity.

    The psychological basis of the urban–rural divide: Evidence from Germany · 2026 · DOI

  • Loneliness has emerged as a defining social phenomenon of our time, yet its political consequences remain insufficiently understood.

    When loneliness becomes political. Voting for the AfD in the 2025 German federal election · 2026 · DOI

  • Can far-left populists' electoral success change public opinion in other countries? If so, what attitudes are affected? While previous research shows that far-right populist's victories abroad can influence citizens' immigration and democratic attitudes, little is known about the spillover effects of far-left populist's victory.

    Spillover effects of a far-left populist's victory: Revisiting the 1998 Venezuela election · 2026 · DOI

  • How does populism interact with space? While it is increasingly acknowledged that populism operates across geographical scales from the local to the transnational, a systematic framework for analysing how populism functions across these scales remains lacking.

    The five spatial political logics of populism: An analytical framework and research agenda for studying the populist politicisation of space from the local to the transnational · 2026 · DOI

  • Although Türkiye is the largest refugee-hosting country in the world, the Zafer Party’s (ZP) (English: Victory Party) discourse on migration as the pioneer representative of the European-style anti-immigrant right party example has been under-studied.

    Populist securitization of migration: The anti-immigrant Zafer Party example in Türkiye · 2025 · DOI

  • However, existing research has largely focused on the case of the United States; there is also no consensus as to the structure or dimensionality of rural (and urban) consciousness.

    Measuring rural and urban consciousness in Europe · 2025 · DOI

  • While political leaders increasingly combine populist and secessionist appeals, systematic evidence remains lacking regarding their effectiveness in mobilizing public support.

    Unpacking Populist Secessionism: Elite Discourse and Mass Attitudes in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina · 2025 · DOI

  • While the ‘top-down’ variant of nationalism is engendered by elites and emphasizes loyalty to the state and ethnic solidarity, little is known about the ‘bottom-up’ variant, which focuses on people’s interest in the state’s and political leaders’ care for the masses.

    Shifting from top-down to bottom-up nationalism: an analysis of YouTube speeches from the 2016/17 candlelight revolution in South Korea · 2024 · DOI

  • Although extensive research has been conducted on the extreme right (ER) and radical right (RR), their foreign policy remains understudied.

    Choosing who to hate? The Extreme and Radical Right's Foreign Policy between Anti‐Semitism, Islamophobia, and Russophilia · 2024 · DOI

  • Future research could explore the application of affective place-making in other political contexts. The study suggests the need for further analysis of the relationship between place-making and political identity. Further research could examine the impact of affective place-making on political mobilization and engagement.

    „Bayern ist die Vorstufe zum Paradies“. Affektives Place-Making als populistische Mobilisierungsstrategie in den Aschermittwochsreden der CSU-Parteivorsitzenden · 2026 · DOI

  • The study highlights the need for further research on the spatial dimensions of political mobilization.

    „Bayern ist die Vorstufe zum Paradies“. Affektives Place-Making als populistische Mobilisierungsstrategie in den Aschermittwochsreden der CSU-Parteivorsitzenden · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper calls for communication strategies that frame circular economy adoption as generating job creation and industrial competitiveness benefits for economic-security-focused constituencies, but lacks empirical data on how different political messaging frames (environmental protection vs. economic benefit emphasis) influence circular economy policy support across provinces with varying ideological compositions.

    Black and green: How electoral outcomes influence provincial circular economy performance in Italy · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper highlights the need to examine the underlying causes of populist voting and abstention. The study seeks to address the lack of research on the relationship between territorial disparities and democratic representation.

    Abstention and Populist Voting: Evidence From the Italian 2018 Election · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research could further develop the notion of discursive potlatch and its implications for democratic practice. It could explore the ways in which different forms of democratic practice might address the unequal distribution of discursive power.

    Esse est audiri: liminal ignorance, discursive hegemony, and the silence-driven crisis of liberal democracy · 2026 · DOI

  • A growing body of research has assessed the relationship between job insecurity and the success of radical parties in Western democracies, but results are still inconclusive due to the complex nature of this independent variable.

    Job insecurity and vote for radical parties: A four-country study · 2024 · DOI

  • The study notes that recent events suggest that the assumption of confidence in democratic elections may be unrealistic.

    Causes and Consequences of Confidence in Democratic Elections · 2026 · DOI

  • It argues that prior approaches have not fully accounted for the ways in which liberal-democratic orders reproduce exclusion.

    Esse est audiri: liminal ignorance, discursive hegemony, and the silence-driven crisis of liberal democracy · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigate whether mainstream parties' larger influence on norm perceptions is indeed driven by their higher normative credibility and legitimacy, - Examine the impact of mainstream party adoption of far-right rhetoric on anti-prejudice norms in other countries, - Investigate the impact of other factors that may influence anti-prejudice…

    Credible Prejudice? When and Why Mainstream Party Adoption of Far-Right Rhetoric Weakens Anti-Prejudice Norms · 2026 · DOI

  • The analysis is based on a limited number of country units (N = 8), - The use of country fixed-effects regression models may not capture all time-varying country-level characteristics, - The study relies on self-reported data…

    Rethinking Democratic Disconnect: Ontological Insecurity, Institutional Trust, and Democratic Support Across Generations · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research could explore the mechanisms by which institutional trust affects democratic support, - Studies could investigate the impact of different types of crises on democratic attitudes, - Research could examine the relationship between ontological insecurity and democratic support in non-European…

    Rethinking Democratic Disconnect: Ontological Insecurity, Institutional Trust, and Democratic Support Across Generations · 2026 · DOI

  • However, criticism also spread among various left-wing and environmentalist milieus, which represents an understudied phenomenon.

    From Big Farms to Big Pharma? Problematizing science-related populism · 2025 · DOI

  • The gap between the North and South of Italy in terms of economic development and CE implementation - The lack of inclusive governance models that address territorial…

    Black and green: How electoral outcomes influence provincial circular economy performance in Italy · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Populism, Right-Wing Movements

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) The lack of understanding of how mainstream parties' rhetoric affects social norms (“Credible Prejudice? When and Why Mainstream Party Adoption of Far-Right…”, 2026); (2) Another challenge is the lack of comprehensive data on women populist leaders, particularly in non-Western contexts (“Neither Exceptional nor Moderate: Rethinking Women Populist Leaders”, 2026); (3) Despite growing scholarship on populism, the function of conspiracy theories within right-wing populist discourse remains underexplored (“Populism and fear in Israel: The case of the judicial reform”, 2026); (4) While previous research shows that far-right populist's victories abroad can influence citizens' immigration and democratic attitudes, little is known about the spillover effects of far-left populist's victory (“Spillover effects of a far-left populist's victory: Revisiting the 1998…”, 2026); (5) Future research could explore the application of affective place-making in other political contexts (“„Bayern ist die Vorstufe zum Paradies“. Affektives Place-Making als…”, 2026). 642 gap statements have been mined from Populism, Right-Wing Movements papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 8,043 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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