Support for far right parties has been rising steadily for decades. Scholars broadly agree that structural economic change have rendered significant numbers of citizens economically insecure, making them ripe for mobilization by far right actors. However, individuals similarly affected by structural change still vote differently. This article proposes that citizens will be more likely to respond to economic insecurity by moving to the far right, when they are embedded in a social network that consists of structurally vulnerable citizens. Building on insights from classical work in political sociology, we argue that the political translation of economic turmoil takes place through discussions with close relationships.

Following citizens in the Netherlands from the onset of the Great Recession, a period of economic insecurity and growing far right support, we find that citizens embedded in structurally vulnerable networks, compared to citizens with at least one high-educated tie, were less likely to respond economic insecurity by moving to the far right. We find similar results in the US, where we find that the effect of increased import competition from China on Trump voting is moderated by network composition.

We then probe mechanisms using panel survey data linked to register data of the entire Dutch population, and an original survey in the UK. We find evidence that social influence in networks is more likely to account for their effect than the enhanced economic resources that higher-SES relationships can provide. These results suggest that far right support crystallizes in socioeconomically segregated groups.