Nationalism and political support: longitudinal evidence from The Netherlands

While a large body of empirical research has examined individuals' political support (also known as democratic support) and how it is influenced by a variety of factors, the role of nationalism has hitherto been neglected in this literature strand. This article seeks to contribute to filling this gap, as it systematically investigates how nationalism, commonly defined as a person's belief in the superiority of their own nation, affects people's political support. Drawing on the influential work of Norris, the study focuses on three types of political support: satisfaction with and confidence in democracy, satisfaction with and confidence in political institutions, and satisfaction with the government. Replying to calls for more panel-based evidence, it covers a period of over ten years (2011-2021) of data from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) in The Netherlands. The study shows that nationalism is positively associated with certain forms of political support, such as satisfaction with and confidence in democracy. Notably, this relationship is robust when different measures of nationalism are used. The article challenges existing findings and provides a more nuanced picture of nationalism, at least when examined over time in such a well-established Western European democracy.