ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces into the model a novel condition: the levels of stigma attached to the fascist past. The results show that fascist legacies explain with greater precision the social acceptability of populism, in particular its right-wing articulation, while left-wing populism’s social acceptability remains unexplained. Compared to Chapter 7, the results produced make it possible to conclude that fascist legacies, especially in combination with other political opportunity structures, play a key role in opening up or closing down the cultural opportunity structure for populism to thrive, therefore confirming the hypotheses formulated. The results of the fsQCA are presented first for the overall social acceptability of populism and then for the two ideological variants: right- and left-wing populism. In addition, it is discussed whether the new solutions are able to explain some of the cases that in the previous step of analysis deviated for coverage or inclusion.
