‘People Being Left Behind' in Rural Areas Andtheir Relationship to Politics

The political and public discourse around the past and current electoral successes of theright-wing populistparty ‘Alternative fürDeutschland’ debates about what the successescan be at-tributed to. Often, the discourse brought upthe so-called 'people being left behind' in rural areas as an explanation.Those people, so it is said,are characterized bya great dissatisfaction with politics, which could not mitigate their worries and fears.In thiscontribution, I gettothe bottom of thisthesis by examining the relationship of the popula-tion to politics against the background of the political debate about services of general interest and the economic situation particularly in rural areas. Therefore, I analyzeexpert interviews on district and municipal levelas well asgroup discussionswith local peopleindifferent rural areas of Germany. Here Icompare rural areas that share different structural characteristics (such astheeconomic and the infrastructural situation) but have the same levels of support for the right-wing populist partyin the German 2017federal elections.Subsequently, this contribution reflects on the population's relationship to politics in the light of the tension between different understandings of citizenship: On the one hand, the republican understanding of citizenship, which emphasizes the politically active entity of thehuman beingin form ofan active participationin government affairs. On the other hand, the liberalunderstand-ing of citizenship, which stressesthe economically autonomous activity of the individual. In this case,the individual remains politically passive,pays taxes and abides by the law but does not interfere in government affairs.The central interim conclusion is that there are two different manifestations of citizenship in the rural areaswith a high level ofsupport for the right-wing populist party:(1) In the rural areas,we studied, which have weaksupply structures and are economically badly-off,I mainly found self-imagesas persons living a liberal citizenship–anegatively viewed condi-tion.The consequence is a strongdemand for more political participation and state support. The political mood is characterized by a criticism of the top political levels or the loss of the connec-tion between the top and the bottom. (2) In the rural areas,we studied, which also have weak supply structures but are economically well-off, a liberalunderstanding of citizenship is lived.With regard to the maintenance and de-velopment of supply structures, the thrivingregional economic situation isused to raise the nec-essary capital for supply structure projects through entrepreneurs. Interestingly, in both cases people perceive a great distance to politics and state structures.A comparison ofthese cases with cases inrural areas which sharethesame structural characteris-tics but show below-average right-wing populist election results is pending.