Do Family Businesses Shape Political Voting Behaviour in Germany?

The present study complements this research by examining the extent to which family businesses shape political voting behaviour. To do this, the author investigates whether the local importance of family businesses correlates with certain political trends in recent nationwide elections. The results show that, in the 2021 general election, the Free Democratic, or Liberal, Party did better in regions with a high proportion of family businesses. This represented a change from the 2019 European election and the 2017 general election, in both of which a concentration of family businesses led to a higher share of votes for the centre-right Union parties (the Christian Social Union in the southern state of Bavaria and the Christian Democratic Union in the rest of the country) at the expense of the SPD, Germany’s social democrats. Notably, however, these effects can only be observed in Germany’s north, west and south, and are completely absent in the country’s once-communist eastern states. Several possible explanations for the influence of family businesses on voting behaviour are put forward. These include the societal and political commitment of family businesses and a stronger feeling of job security and increased identification with employers leading voters to give more consideration to corporate interests at the ballot box. The shifts in the parties benefiting from this identification are no doubt closely related to the question of which party leader would make the best Chancellor.