Why The Higher Educated Oppose the System

Lower educated citizens are generally the larger part of the voting electorate of Populist Radical Right Parties. However, Forum voor Democratie and JA21 have succeeded in attracting higher educated voters to their electorate. Little scientific research has been performed into the motives of higher educated citizens to vote for these parties. The focus of this inquiry will, therefore, be on understanding the considerations of higher educated citizens and how these have incentivised them to vote for Populist Radical Right Parties. 12 semi-structured interviews were held with higher educated voters. The results show that cultural factors and political distrust were most relevant in higher educated citizens’ considerations. Especially the latter seems to be important in relation to higher educated citizens’ degree of political knowledge and political sophistication. This entails that these citizens know how politics and political actors operate, which enables them to accurately assess and evaluate political occurrences. As a result, they observe misconduct in politics and politicians, which negatively impacts on their political trust. This incentivises them to vote for Populist Radical Right Parties as they believe that these parties can foster political change.