ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the human values, political attitudes (policy preferences), and ideological orientation of the contemporary radical-left electorate and assesses the role that these variables play in explaining electoral support for West European RLPs. We examine voters’ core values and ideological placement in the left-right scale. Besides this, policy preferences are analysed considering two main dimensions: the traditional economic or distributive conflict, and the sociocultural divide. Contemporary RLPs voters rank high on self-transcendence human values and openness to change. They are also both culturally and economically progressive voters, with relatively Eurosceptic views in most cases. The chapter also demonstrates that values and attitudinal variables are central in explaining the likelihood to vote for RLPs in Western Europe, but their introduction in the statistical models performed in the chapter does not cancel the influence of the socio-demographic factors examined in Chapter 3.
