A hot topic? Immigration on the agenda in Western Europe

The party politics of immigration is one of the fastest growing bodies of research within the study of West European politics. Within this literature, an underlying assumption is that immigration has become one of the most salient issues. However, this is rarely documented, let alone explained. Drawing on a new coding of party manifestos in seven West European countries, this article shows that party attention to immigration has grown in all countries since 1980 but only in Denmark has the issue become one of the most salient issues of party politics. We find that the general increase in attention reflects the rising number of immigrants and rise of radical right-wing parties. In terms of the issue becoming a top issue of party politics, a comparative analysis of the politicization of immigration in Denmark and the Netherlands shows that the interest of mainstream right-wing parties and coalition dynamics are the crucial factors.

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West European Politics in Turmoil?

10.1093/oso/9780192896223.003.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Erik R. Tillman

Keyword(s):

Western Europe ◽

Electoral Politics ◽

European Countries ◽

Radical Right ◽

Right Wing ◽

Electoral Support ◽

West European Politics ◽

Radical Right Parties ◽

National Boundaries ◽

West European

This chapter introduces the puzzle and motivation for the book. Rising support for populist radical right parties in Western Europe and increasing polarization over European integration represent a change from the politics of the 1990s. Radical right parties or candidates have achieved new levels of electoral support in many West European countries. At the same time, though, mainstream values have become increasingly liberal. Thus, recent years have not simply seen a resurgence of right-wing nationalism in Western Europe; they have seen greater polarization concerning issues of national identity and community. In short, West European electoral politics is evolving from conflict based around cleavages such as class to a new dimension of conflict centring on questions of identity, culture, and the demarcation of national boundaries. This chapter reviews existing accounts of this electoral evolution before providing an overview of this book’s arguments and findings.

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Re-emerging Christianity in West European Politics: The Case of the Netherlands

Politics and Religion ◽

10.1017/s1755048312000776 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 74-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hans J. P. Vollaard

Keyword(s):

The Netherlands ◽

Western Europe ◽

Party Politics ◽

European Politics ◽

The European Union ◽

Faith Based ◽

Precise Understanding ◽

Christian Culture ◽

West European Politics ◽

West European

AbstractDoes Christianity re-emerge in politics even in the most secularized part of the world, Western Europe? In this article, the exemplary case of the Netherlands provides empirical evidence for two mechanisms of resurgent Christianity in party politics. In this way, the article also offers a more precise understanding under what conditions various dimensions of religion become (again) or remain politically significant. The first mechanism has been the incentive of secularization and secularism for remaining Christians to regroup in a so-called creative minority to convey an explicitly faith-based message to a broader public. Modernization has therefore not automatically meant less religion in politics. However, creative minorities remained a relatively minor affair in Dutch party politics, despite the large number of Christian migrants and their descendants. Second, Christian and culturally rightwing, secular parties have increasingly referred to a Judeo-Christian culture to mark the political identities of the European Union and its nations in response to Islam's growing visibility. The concept of Judeo-Christian culture foremost functioned as a sacred word to denote the liberal and secular order of the West, reflecting the re-emergence of Christianity as cultural phenomenon rather than faith in West European politics.

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A Worldview Evolution?

10.1093/oso/9780192896223.003.0010 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 213-224

Author(s):

Erik R. Tillman

Keyword(s):

Political Psychology ◽

Social Cohesion ◽

Western Europe ◽

Common Ground ◽

Democratic Politics ◽

European Politics ◽

The World ◽

West European Politics ◽

The Usa ◽

West European

The concluding chapter revisits the main arguments and findings of each chapter before turning to a discussion of their implications for our understanding of West European politics. The first implication is that the worldview evolution described in this book is rooted in political psychology rather than group interests or identity. Second, the worldview evolution occurring in Western Europe bears similarities to developments in the USA and other advanced democracies. Though the differences in context mediate how this evolution develops in each part of the world, similar divisions over social cohesion and community are at their heart. Finally, this book’s findings suggest that issues relating to social cohesion and diversity will remain contentious in the coming years. By contrast, economic and class issues may evolve to reflect the new structure of party conflict. Finding common ground across these worldviews will be a core challenge of West European democratic politics in the coming years.

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Fascists among themselves: some observations on west European politics in the 1930s

European Review ◽

10.1017/s1062798703000267 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 245-266 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

DIETRICH ORLOW

Keyword(s):

European Politics ◽

Right Wing ◽

Wing Movement ◽

West European Politics ◽

West European

Historians have long found it difficult to deal with fascism as a generic, Europe-wide, political phenomenon. The historiographic pendulum has swung from including virtually every right-wing movement under the label of fascism to denying altogether that generic fascism ever existed. Neither approach is historically valid. The fascists did not see themselves as a species of Conservatives; they looked upon themselves as a unique, international political phenomenon. Moreover, many of their non-fascist contemporaries accepted this claim. Both were right and, for this reason, it is necessary to renew efforts to delineate the ideological and stylistic parameters of generic fascism. An important aid in understanding fascism as a generic phenomenon is the analysis of the relations between the German Nazis and French and Dutch fascists in the years from 1933 to 1939, a topic that has been little studied until now.

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The Centre Does Not Hold: Coalition Politics and Party System Change in the Netherlands, 2002–12

Government and Opposition ◽

10.1017/gov.2016.20 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 53 (2) ◽

pp. 231-255 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Huib Pellikaan ◽

Sarah L. de Lange ◽

Tom W.G. van der Meer

Keyword(s):

Coalition Formation ◽

Party System ◽

Western Europe ◽

Party Systems ◽

Party Competition ◽

Radical Right ◽

Right Wing ◽

Coalition Politics ◽

Coalition Formation Process ◽

The Impact

Like many party systems across Western Europe, the Dutch party system has been in flux since 2002 as a result of a series of related developments, including the decline of mainstream parties which coincided with the emergence of radical right-wing populist parties and the concurrent dimensional transformation of the political space. This article analyses how these challenges to mainstream parties fundamentally affected the structure of party competition. On the basis of content analysis of party programmes, we examine the changing configuration of the Dutch party space since 2002 and investigate the impact of these changes on coalition-formation patterns. We conclude that the Dutch party system has become increasingly unstable. It has gradually lost its core through electoral fragmentation and mainstream parties’ positional shifts. The disappearance of a core party that dominates the coalition-formation process initially transformed the direction of party competition from centripetal to centrifugal. However, since 2012 a theoretically novel configuration has emerged in which no party or coherent group of parties dominates competition.

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