Work

Rising market power and its political discontents

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: How does market power affect the political behavior of small business owners? As the growing market power of large multinational firms has fundamentally changed the opportunity structure for small businesses and their beneficiaries, we try to understand how those economic developments influence European democracies. We argue that growing market power lowers small business owners’ trust in key democratic institutions and the functioning of markets, driving them to reject incumbents and shift their support to radical right parties. We employ firm-level, individual-level, and regional-level data on fourteen European countries to test this argument. Our findings indicate that rising market power, measured by combining mergers and increases in market concentration, is associated with the declining economic performance of micro-firms. In turn, mergers and the declining economic share of these firms are robust predictors of anti-incumbent and increased radical right voting both at the individual and constituency levels. This article provides the first analysis of the effect of market concentration on rich democracies and, in doing so, offers a novel explanation for the surprising radical right support among small business owners in Europe.

Source: Socio-Economic Review

DOI: 10.1093/ser/mwag056

Authors: Tommaso Crescioli, Toon Van Overbeke

Institutions: Prometeia (Italy), London School of Economics and Political Science, Maastricht University

Language: English

Topic: Populism, Right-Wing Movements

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,718