Social policy outcomes of government participation by radical right parties

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406882092349
Author(s):  
Juliana Chueri

The literature has pointed to a change in radical right-wing parties’ (RRWPs) position regarding the welfare state. Those parties have abandoned the neoliberal approach on distributive issues and have become defenders of social expenditure for deserving groups. Nevertheless, as RRWPs have joined with right-wing mainstream parties to form governments, their distributive policy position might cause conflict in a coalition. This study, therefore, addresses this puzzle by analysing the social policy outcomes of RRWPs’ government participation. The conclusion is that those parties contribute to the welfare state retrenchment. However, policies are not affected evenly. Expenditure that targets groups regarded as undeserving by the radical right is retrenched the most.

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menno Fenger

AbstractIn many European countries and in the US, populist right-wing parties are gaining ground. The political agenda of these parties is dominated by their reluctant or even out-right hostile position against migration and foreigners and a strong emphasis on nationalist values in combination with an anti-globalisation economic agenda. In most cases, the social agenda of the radical right parties and politicians are more ambiguous and less clearly explicated. These parties rely on working class ‘insiders’ and therefore may be expected to oppose austerity measures, but at that same time have firm opinions about deservingness and conditionality that may sometimes harm the interests of their voters. This article sets out to explore the social policy agenda of radical right parties in six different countries: the US, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France. The article uses content analysis of speeches and party manifestos as its main method of data analysis.


Author(s):  
Alexandre Afonso ◽  
Line Rennwald

This chapter explores the importance of the welfare state as a political issue for radical right parties. It considers the role of the class setup of parties, party competition, and issue salience as possible determinants of welfare state positions. Based on an analysis of voter profiles and the economic agendas of right-wing populist parties in recent years, it finds that while the welfare state tends to gain in importance for a number of right-wing populist parties, there is no mechanistic relationship between voter profiles and the welfare position of parties. Where the welfare state is an important issue for radical right parties, they tend to defend the welfare state and take a pro-redistribution position.


Author(s):  
Sven Schreurs

Abstract In academia and beyond, it has become commonplace to regard populist parties – in particular, those on the radical right – as the archetypical embodiment of politics of nostalgia. Demand-side studies suggest that nostalgic sentiments motivate populist radical-right (PRR) voting and welfare chauvinist attitudes, yet systematic analyses of the nostalgic discourse that these parties promote have not been forthcoming. This paper seeks to fill that lacuna by analysing how the Freedom Party of Austria, the Dutch Party for Freedom and the Sweden Democrats framed the historical fate of the welfare state in their electoral discourse between 2008 and 2018. It demonstrates that their commitment to welfare chauvinism finds expression in a common repertoire of “welfare nostalgia,” manifested in the different modes of “reaction,” “conservation” and “modernisation.” Giving substance to a widespread intuition about PRR nostalgia, the paper breaks ground for further research into nostalgic ideas about social policy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
Azwar Azwar Azwar ◽  
Emeraldy Chatra ◽  
Zuldesni Zuldesni

Poverty is one of the social problems that the government can never completely solve. As a result, other, more significant social issues arise and cause social vulnerability, such as conflict and crime. As a province that is experiencing rapid growth in the last ten years, the West Sumatra find difficulty to overcome the number of poor people in several districts and cities.  The research outcomes are the models and forms of social policy made by West Sumatra regencies and cities governments in improving the welfare of poor communities. It is also covering the constraints or obstacles to the implementation of social policy and the selection of welfare state models for the poor in some districts and municipalities of West Sumatra. This research is conducted qualitatively with a sociological approach that uses social perspective on searching and explaining social facts that happened to needy groups. Based on research conducted that the social policy model adopted by the government in responding to social problems in the districts and cities of West Sumatra reflects the welfare state model given to the poor. There is a strong relationship between the welfare state model and the form of social policy made by the government.


Author(s):  
Richard M. Titmuss

This chapter looks at how some students of social policy see the development of ‘The Welfare State’ in historical perspective as part of a broad, ascending road of social betterment provided for the working classes since the nineteenth century and achieving its goal in the present time. This interpretation of change as a process of unilinear progression in collective benevolence for these classes led to the belief that in the year 1948 ‘The Welfare State’ was established. Since then, successive governments, Conservative and Labour, have busied themselves with the more effective operation of the various services. Both parties have also claimed the maintenance of ‘The Welfare State’ as an article of faith.


Author(s):  
Katarina H. Thorén ◽  
Pia Tham

This chapter examines the engagement of social work academics in the policy process in Sweden. It begins by presenting an overview of social policy and the welfare state in Sweden and by discussing the emergence of the social work profession in that country. The development of social work education in Sweden and its contemporary features are then depicted. Following these, the methodology and the findings of a study of the policy engagement of Swedish social work academics are presented. The findings relate to the levels of engagement in policy and the forms that this takes. The study also offers insights into various factors that are associated with these, such as perceptions, capabilities, institutional support and the accessibility of the policy process. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the findings and their implications.


Author(s):  
Andreas Herz ◽  
Stefan Köngeter

This chapter examines the engagement of social work academics in the policy process in Germany. It begins by presenting an overview of social policy and the welfare state in Germany and by discussing the emergence of the social work profession in that country. The unique features of social work education in Germany and the place of policy engagement in the social work discourse are depicted. Following these, the methodology and the findings of a study of the policy engagement of German social work academics are then presented. The findings relate to the levels of engagement in policy and the forms that this takes. The study also offers insights into various factors that are associated with these, such as perceptions, capabilities, institutional support and the accessibility of the policy process. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the findings and their implications.


1989 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Baldwin

If a question can be mal posée, surely an interpretation can be mal étendue. This has been the fate of the social interpretation of the welfare state. The cousin of social theories of bourgeois revolution, the social interpretation of the welfare state is part of a broader conception of the course of modern European history that until recently has laid claim to the status of a standard. The social interpretation sees the welfare states of certain countries as a victory for the working class and confirmation of the ability of its political representatives on the Left to use universalist, egalitarian, solidaristic measures of social policy on behalf of the least advantaged. Because the poor and the working class were groups that overlapped during the initial development of the welfare state, social policy was linked with the worker's needs. Faced with the ever-present probability of immiseration, the proletariat championed the cause of all needy and developed more pronounced sentiments of solidarity than other classes. Where it achieved sufficient power, the privileged classes were forced to consent to measures that apportioned the cost of risks among all, helping those buffeted by fate and social injustice at the expense of those docked in safe berths.


2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (157) ◽  
pp. 577-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Kaindl

The success of right wing parties in Europe is closely linked to the lack of representation that went along with the neoliberal shift of the social democrats. Feelings of injustice going along with altering the trans-national mode of production, concepts of the welfare state and labour politics were taken into account by rightwing “critics” that fight globalization in fighting immigrants. The crisis and bail-out-politics enforced feelings of injustice but at the same time brought the state – and the unions – ‘back in’ e.g. in creating a ‘clash-for-clunkers’ project. That seems to have weakened right-wing parties in Germany and France presenting themselves as an authoritarian fordistic option, but at the same time strengthened racist campaigns in other countries.


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