Short-Term Mobility and Changes in Political Norms

The interdependence of contemporary societies has promoted unprecedented flows of people, goods, and ideas. We argue that this interconnectedness can also change political norms, i.e., perceptions of what political views are acceptable. Empirically, we take advantage of two close elections in Spain (April and November 2019). In April, the radical-right party Vox first became electorally successful. The two elections are separated by summer, a period of high internal mobility. Leveraging data on mobility across Spanish provinces, we show that the more mobility there is between two regions, the more similar their political norms become after the summer. To deal with endogeneity issues, we also run models where we instrument for mobility with gas prices and distance between provinces. Survey data and additional analyses of Christmastime mobility pay further support to the argument. These findings highlight that political norms are contingent on the set of individuals that one interacts with.