Exclusionary Populism in Western Europe in the 1990s: Electoral Success and Political Impact

2005 ◽  
pp. 92-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Georg Betz
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Political Impact

Strategies of Dominance

2020 ◽  
pp. 86-110
Author(s):  
Catherine E. De Vries ◽  
Sara B. Hobolt
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Dominant Party ◽  
Real Risk ◽  
Party Strategies ◽  
Dominant Parties ◽  
And Control

This chapter examines the strategies employed by dominant parties to secure their long-term electoral success and control of office. The first of the dominant-party strategies is that of distinctive convergence, whereby dominant parties take positions closer to the center ground in order to appeal to the tastes of a larger share of the electorate. Second, dominant parties seek to keep challengers at bay by controlling the political agenda and avoiding issues that may be disadvantageous to them. The final strategy concerns the emphasis of dominant parties on their competence. In combination, the strategies of distinctive convergence, issue avoidance, and competence have kept the old center-right and center-left parties in a dominant position in most of Western Europe for decades. Yet, these strategies are not without risk. As dominant parties converge to the center, there is a real risk that voters perceive them as too similar and feel they lack a genuine alternative.

scholarly journals The Electoral Success of the Radical Left: Explaining the Least Likely Case of the Communist Party in Graz

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manès Weisskircher
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
National Level ◽  
Current Strength ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Party Family ◽  
Radical Left

Recently, scholars have shown a growing interest in radical left parties (RLPs). In terms of electoral success, the rise of the KPÖ Graz, the Communist Party in Austria’s second biggest city, represents perhaps the most counterintuitive case in Western Europe. Adding to previous studies, the rise of the KPÖ Graz contradicts many of the claims made and patterns found about the conditions for the electoral success of RLPs. While the national KPÖ was voted out of parliament in 1959, the Graz branch has been a member of local government since 1998. Since then, the party has managed to gain 20 per cent of the vote in three out of four elections. In 2017, the KPÖ defended its place as the second largest party in local legislature and stayed ahead of the radical right FPÖ, on the rise at the national level. In stark contrast to the Communists’ current strength, however, they did not gain even 2 per cent of the vote in 1983. This analysis shows how the party has managed to ‘own’ the issue of housing and to exploit local political opportunities in order to be electorally successful. The findings point to the importance of agency and the subnational level for RLPs, and highlight more general questions in the study of this party family.

The immigration issue and anti-immigrant party success in Sweden 1970-2006

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Dahlström ◽  
Peter Esaiasson
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
National Context ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Party Strategy ◽  
Immigrant Policies ◽  
The Right ◽  
Immigration Issue ◽  
Clear Support

Electoral success of anti-immigrant parties varies considerably across Western Europe. This article contributes to research on this important matter by analysing which current theories that accounts for the failure of anti-immigrant parties in one national context, Sweden. It draws on an unusually rich set of data to trace important processes from the 1970s up to 2006. It shows that the failure of anti-immigrant parties is not explained by low citizen demand for anti-immigrant policies. The article does however find clear support for party strategy theories. More specifically, in accordance with important strands of this literature, it is found that a dismissive issue strategy has been effective in reducing support for anti-immigrant parties. There is also support for the expectation that established parties to the right are more inclined to pursue anti-immigrant policies than parties to the left.

ПРОБЛЕМА ИСЛАМИЗАЦИИ ГЕРМАНСКОГО ОБЩЕСТВА В КОНТЕКСТЕ СОВРЕМЕННЫХ МИГРАЦИОННЫХ ПРОЦЕССОВ

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
A. E. Nadezhdin
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
National Security Strategy ◽  
Alternative For Germany

This article deals with the process of Islamisation in Western Europe, particularly in Germany taking into account the current domestic situation and the changes it has undergone. Muslim population growth and the fight for their rights, reconstruction of their native country elements (building mosques, wearing religious attire, conducting religious worship) or the voluntary refusal to adapt to the recipient society contribute greatly to segregation and growth of tensions between the local “majority” and the “minority” of newcomers. It has been noted that if state institutions don’t have the capacity to resolve the problems linked to Islamisation (enclavisation, ghettoisation, criminalization etc.), the recipient society starts to generate its own ways of tackling these issues. Such situations lead to internal conflicts between the authorities and the public and reshape the existing political landscape. Within the context of these circumstances, such groups as “PEGIDA” and the electoral success of the “Alternative for Germany” party are of particular interest. The article also provides a characteristic of the main Germany-based Muslim social organizations underscoring the radical and extremist ones whose members could potentially be involved in terrorist activities. Special attention is paid to The migrant crisis of 2015-2016, that has exposed the existing drawbacks of the German integration, socialization and adaptation policy targeted at migrants with Muslim background. The crisis and the subsequent criminal offences have highlighted the need to revise the existing national security strategy in view of the new threats and challenges as well as to harmonize the basics of intercultural and interreligious dialogue within the society of “guiding German culture”.

Conditions Favouring Parties of the Extreme Right in Western Europe

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Jackman ◽  
Karin Volpert
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Extreme Right ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Empirical Estimates ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
West European Politics ◽  
Favourable Environment

We examine the systemic conditions that have influenced the electoral success of parties of the extreme right in West European politics from 1970 through 1990. Empirical estimates based on 103 elections in sixteen countries suggest that electoral and party-system factors interact with each other to generate conditions conducive to these parties. Specifically, increasing electoral thresholds dampen support for the extreme right as the number of parliamentary parties expands. At the same time, multi-partism increasingly fosters parties of the extreme right with rising electoral proportionality. Our analyses also indicate that higher rates of unemployment provide a favourable environment for these political movements. These results suggest that levels of electoral support for the extreme right are sensitive to factors that can be modified through policy instruments.

scholarly journals Explaining the end of Spanish exceptionalism and electoral support for Vox

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205316801985168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart J. Turnbull-Dugarte
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Regional Elections

The 2018 regional elections in Andalucía marked the end of Spain’s exceptional status as a country with a party system free from the radical right. The electoral success of the radical right-wing challenger, Vox, who gained 11% of the vote and 12 seats in the regional parliament, brought this exceptionalism to an end. This paper analyses the individual-level determinants that explain the electoral success of Vox and the emergence of the radical right within the Spanish party system. The results indicate that concerns over devolution, likely engendered by the Catalan separatist crisis, predominantly explain voters’ preferences for the right-wing challenger. This is true both amongst the general electorate as well as amongst the former voters of other right-wing parties. Significantly, against popular assumptions and empirical observations explaining the rise of radical right-wing parties across much of Western Europe, the results display no empirical link between immigration and electoral support for Vox.

ПРОБЛЕМА ИСЛАМИЗАЦИИ ГЕРМАНСКОГО ОБЩЕСТВА В КОНТЕКСТЕ СОВРЕМЕННЫХ МИГРАЦИОННЫХ ПРОЦЕССОВ

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
A. E. Nadezhdin
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
National Security Strategy ◽  
Alternative For Germany

This article deals with the process of Islamisation in Western Europe, particularly in Germany taking into account the current domestic situation and the changes it has undergone. Muslim population growth and the fight for their rights, reconstruction of their native country elements (building mosques, wearing religious attire, conducting religious worship) or the voluntary refusal to adapt to the recipient society contribute greatly to segregation and growth of tensions between the local “majority” and the “minority” of newcomers. It has been noted that if state institutions don’t have the capacity to resolve the problems linked to Islamisation (enclavisation, ghettoisation, criminalization etc.), the recipient society starts to generate its own ways of tackling these issues. Such situations lead to internal conflicts between the authorities and the public and reshape the existing political landscape. Within the context of these circumstances, such groups as “PEGIDA” and the electoral success of the “Alternative for Germany” party are of particular interest. The article also provides a characteristic of the main Germany-based Muslim social organizations underscoring the radical and extremist ones whose members could potentially be involved in terrorist activities. Special attention is paid to The migrant crisis of 2015-2016, that has exposed the existing drawbacks of the German integration, socialization and adaptation policy targeted at migrants with Muslim background. The crisis and the subsequent criminal offences have highlighted the need to revise the existing national security strategy in view of the new threats and challenges as well as to harmonize the basics of intercultural and interreligious dialogue within the society of “guiding German culture”.

The Political Impact of Foreign Labor: A Re-evaluation of the Western European Experience

1982 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark J. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Labor Policy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Political Status ◽  
Foreign Labor ◽  
European Experience ◽  
Political Impact

Foreign workers in Western Europe generally have been portrayed as powerless and voiceless. Especially for contemporary Marxists, foreign labor policy is seen as serving to reinforce the political status quo. This article suggests that foreign workers in Western Europe participate politically more often and in more diverse ways than generally thought. Their participation often is politically disruptive and has contributed to the growing perception that the sociopolitical costs of foreign labor policy outweigh its economic benefits.

scholarly journals Surveying the ‘Far Right’ in Europe: Reflections on Recent Trends and Conceptual Approaches

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-57
Author(s):  
Paul Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
New Right ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Complex Relationships

Primarily focused on recent trends in Western Europe, this article examines a range of phenomena that fall under the label “far right”. It problematizes this slippery term before surveying recent developments in the diverse range of political parties, from the United Kingdom Independence Party to Jobbik, identifying a broad trend toward such parties achieving greater electoral success by moderating extremist elements. Following this, it highlights the complex relationships found between what are often dubbed “populist” far right political parties and other, more “extreme” forms of activity. Finally, it identifies three major “narratives” found in more extreme far right movements in Europe: neo-Nazi, New Right and anti-Muslim. It asserts that movements animated by such agendas do impact far right political parties. It also stresses academic debate needs to engage with figures outside academia, to create new solutions to the issues raised by variegated forms of far right activity.

scholarly journals Party decline or social transformation? Economic, institutional and sociological change and the rise of anti-political-establishment parties in Western Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Casal Bértoa ◽  
José Rama
Keyword(s):  
Economic Performance ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Current Wave ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Western European ◽  
Party Decline

AbstractThe rise in support for anti-political-establishment parties (APEp), especially since the beginning of the 2008 Great Recession, has put democracy in peril. Some scholars have warned us about the negative implications the recent rise of APEp might have for the development of democracy in Western Europe. For that reason, it is important we begin to understand what generates APEp’s electoral success. Drawing on a new comparative dataset that examines all Western European democracies from 1849 until 2017, the current article attempts to provide an explanation. In particular, our analyses examine three alternative explanations put forward by the literature: economic, institutional, and sociological. Our results show that it is not economic performance but both institutional and sociological change which together can help to understand the current wave of support for APEp.

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