scholarly journals Mainstream Party Strategies Towards Extreme Right Parties: The French 2007 and 2012 Presidential Elections

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Carvalho

The electoral success of extreme right parties (ERPs) has attracted a disproportionate number of studies. By contrast, research into the mainstream parties’ reactions to ERPs has engendered little interest. With few exceptions, the effects of the centre-right parties’ strategic options in electoral competitions with ERPs remain unexplored. To overcome this shortcoming, this investigation examines the strategies employed by the French centre-right party – Union pour un Movement Populaire (UMP) against the Front National in the 2007 and the 2012 presidential elections by focusing on the topics of immigration and integration. This study suggests that the adoption of accommodating approaches in both elections was followed by distinct levels of success in 2007 and 2012. Drawing on a qualitative comparative analysis, this article explores three hypotheses in order to enhance understanding of the divergent effectiveness of the UMP’s accommodative approaches in the elections studied.

Author(s):  
Christos Vrakopoulos

Abstract This article aims to explain the variation in the electoral support for extreme-right parties (ERPs) in Europe. The extant literature on the far-right party family does not answer this question specifically with regard to the extreme-right variants for two main reasons. Firstly, theories did not expect the electoral success of these parties in post-war Europe due to their anti-democratic profiles and association with fascism. Secondly, despite the fact that they acknowledge the differences between the parties under the far-right umbrella – namely, the extreme and the radical – they normally do not take these differences into account, and if so, they focus on the radical-right parties. This article shows that electoral support for ERPs is associated with low quality of government and highly conservative mainstream-right parties. The former creates political legitimization for anti-democratic parties and the latter ideological normalization of extreme right.


2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATT GOLDER

In their 1996 article in this Journal, Robert Jackman and Karin Volpert analyse the systematic conditions that influence the electoral success of extreme right parties in sixteen West European countries from 1970 to 1990. In particular, they focus on the effects of unemployment, electoral thresholds and multi-partism.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Dardanelli

To what extent and in what way does European integration fuel state restructuring? This is a long-standing but still not a fully answered question. While the theoretical literature suggests a positive link between the two, previous empirical studies have reached contrasting conclusions. The article offers an alternative testing of the proposition, centred on the role of party strategies as a causal mechanism, analysed across space and time. On the cross-sectional axis, it focusses on parties in Flanders and Wallonia (Belgium), Lombardy and Sicily (Italy), Catalonia and Andalusia (Spain), and Scotland and Wales (United Kingdom). On the cross-temporal axis, it focuses on four critical junctures connecting integration and state restructuring. It analyses the degree to which ‘Europe’ has been strategically used in connection to state restructuring and which conditions have been necessary and/or sufficient to that outcome. The analysis has been conducted on the basis of a Qualitative Comparative Analysis methodology. Five main results emerge: (1) overall, parties have generally exploited ‘Europe’ in connection with state restructuring to a limited extent only but in a few cases exploitation has been very intense and intimately linked to strategic turning points; (2) ‘Europe’ has overwhelmingly been used to support state restructuring; (3) the most intense use has been made by regional parties with a secessionist position and positive attitude to the EU; (4) ‘use of Europe’ is a product of a complex conjunctural effect of several conditions; (5) it has increased over time but is not a linear product of integration, a sharp drop can be observed between the two most recent time points. These findings show that European integration can indeed exercise causal influence upon state restructuring via party strategies but that this is highly contingent on the complex interaction of multiple factors.


Author(s):  
Αναστασία Καφέ ◽  
Βασιλική Γεωργιάδου ◽  
Ζηνοβία Λιαλιούτη

ΠερίληψηΗ ξενοφοβική βία στην Ελλάδα βρίσκεται στο επίκεντρο του ενδιαφέροντος του παρόντος άρθρου. Η μελέτη του φαινομένου αναδεικνύει ευθείες συνδέσεις των δραστών με το χώρο της ακροδεξιάς και ειδικότερα τη Χρυσή Αυγή. Με τη δημιουργία μιας νέας βάσης δεδομένων που στηρίζεται στην εξαντλητική καταγραφή στον Τύπο περιστατικών βίας κατά μεταναστών στο διάστημα 1991-2017, υποστηρίζουμε ότι ο βίαιος ακτιβισμός δεν αποτελεί απλή συνέπεια της εκλογικής ενδυνάμωσης της άκρας δεξιάς, αλλά προϋποθέτει έναν πυρήνα οργανωμένων δρώντων που ανήκουν ή κινούνται στο περιβάλλον της. Από τα δεδομένα μας συνάγεται ότι η εξέλιξη του αριθμού των επιθέσεων κατά μεταναστών δεν συμπίπτει απολύτως με μια αντίστοιχη διακύμανση στον πληθυσμό των μεταναστών. Τούτο σημαίνει ότι οι αντιμεταναστευτικές επιθέσεις δεν αυξάνονται απαραιτήτως όταν ο αριθμός των μεταναστών είναι μεγάλος, αλλά μπορεί να εμφανίζονται συχνότερα σε περιόδους και περιοχές που παρατηρείται ξαφνική είσοδος μεταναστών. Αν στις περιοχές αυτές εντοπίζονται οργανωμένοι πυρήνες της άκρας δεξιάς και ειδικότερα της Χρυσής Αυγής, τότε είναι συχνό το φαινόμενο των επιθέσεων κατά μεταναστών. AbstractThe main research interest of this article focuses on the issue of xenophobic violence in Greece. The study of this phenomenon highlights its direct connection to extreme right-wing actors that are particularly associated with Golden Dawn. With the creation of a new database of violent incidents against immigrants during the period 1991-2017 constructed upon material from the press, we argue that violent activism is not merely a consequence of the electoral success of extreme right parties but it presupposes a cell of organized actors that belong to or move around this specific political environment. Moreover, our data suggest that the quantitative evolution of anti-immigrant attacks does not coincide with the size of immigration. This means that anti-immigrant attacks are not necessarily traced in areas with high migrant population but may be more frequent in areas where the entry of immigrants increases instantly. This trend is reinforced by the presence of organized cells of extreme right orientation - and especially Golden Dawn - that coordinate anti-immigrant violent action.


2005 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
BONNIE M. MEGUID

What accounts for variation in the electoral success of niche parties? Although institutional and sociological explanations of single-issue party strength have been dominant, they tend to remove parties from the analysis. In this article, I argue that the behavior of mainstream parties influences the electoral fortunes of the new, niche party actors. In contrast to standard spatial theories, my theory recognizes that party tactics work by altering the salience and ownership of issues for political competition, not just party issue positions. It follows that niche party support can be shaped by both proximal and non-proximal competitors. Analysis of green and radical right party vote in 17 Western European countries from 1970 to 2000 confirms that mainstream party strategies matter; the modified spatial theory accounts for the failure and success of niche parties across countries and over time better than institutional, sociological, and even standard spatial explanations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205316801985098
Author(s):  
Sean Kates

The literature surrounding extreme right parties in Europe has developed dramatically over the past two decades. However, the analysis of electoral success for these parties has produced muddled results, and occasionally even conflicting findings. This article argues this confusion is partially due to a reliance on an inappropriate model choice. Through the use of simulations, a goodness-of-fit exercise, and a prediction exercise based on model cross-validation, I show that the traditional Tobit specification—adopted to deal with electoral results of fringe parties—is theoretically untenable, statistically inferior to alternative models, and practically prone to revealing effects that are unsupported by the underlying data. Rather, the results suggest that best practices should see researchers adopt Cragg or Heckman models for two-stage questions, or consider adopting an analysis applying multiple overimputation if the main question is focused on the determinants of electoral success.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Jasko ◽  
Joanna Grzymala-Moszczynska ◽  
Marta Maj ◽  
Marta Szastok ◽  
Arie W. Kruglanski

Reactions of losers and winners of political elections have important consequences for the political system during the times of power transition. In four studies conducted immediately before and after the 2016 US presidential elections we investigated how personal significance induced by success or failure of one’s candidate is related to hostile vs. benevolent intentions toward political adversaries. We found that the less significant supporters of Hillary Clinton and supporters of Donald Trump felt after an imagined (Study 1A) or actual (Study 2) electoral failure the more they were willing to engage in peaceful actions against the elected president and the less they were willing to accept the results of the elections. However, while significance gain due to an imagined or actual electoral success was related to more benevolent intentions among Clinton supporters (Study 1B), it was related to more hostile intentions among Trump supporters (Studies 1B, 2, and 3).


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