Can government policies moderate political backlash to structural change?

This study examines whether government policies can mitigate political backlash against structural economic change. Amid rising support for populist and radical parties and declining levels of trust and satisfaction, scholars have amply documented how recent economic transformations fuel political disruption. Yet, governments’ capacity to counter this backlash through policy intervention remains underexplored. We analyze the French Professional Security Contract (CSP), a program introduced in 2011 to speci!cally support workers displaced by structural change. Using comprehensive administrative and original survey data, we assess its impact on various dimensions of political backlash. Our findings show that the CSP indeed reduces backlash in vulnerable municipalities and among beneficiaries. This effect operates through two mechanisms: material benefits ease hardship, while personalized engagement fosters social recognition. A unique survey among previous program recipients corroborates the importance of non-material aspects. Our results suggest that policy can mitigate backlash by strategically combining material support with non-material engagement.