1st Edition
The European Mainstream and the Populist Radical Right
Are populist radical right (PRR) parties the only alternatives for voters seeking restrictive and assimilationist outcomes? Or is a mainstream choice available? Popular opinion and social media commentaries often criticize mainstream parties for facing in the same liberal and multicultural direction. Literature on parties and elections equally suggests a convergence of policy positions and the disappearance of any significant differences between parties. This edited volume is an attempt to challenge such perceptions and conclusions. By systematically coding manifestos for seventeen mainstream and six PRR parties in Western Europe, the book explores positional differences between mainstream and niche contenders over three key elections between 2002 and 2015. The findings indicate more choice than initially expected, but these restrictive and assimilationist options are usually in close proximity to each other and typically less intense than those of the PRR. This can help explain the continuous growth of the PRR despite the presence of a mainstream alternative. Yet party system dynamics also matter. Contributing authors thus investigate a number of arguments in the precarious relationship between mainstream parties, the electorate and the PRR, as well as between different mainstream parties.
The European Mainstream and the Populist Radical Right
Acknowledgments
- Mainstream Parties, the Populist Radical Right, and the (Alleged) Lack of a Restrictive and Assimilationist Alternative
Pontus Odmalm and Eve Hepburn
2. The European Mainstream and the Populist Radical Right (PRR): The British Case
Rebecca Partos
3. Conflict and Co-operation between the Danish Mainstream as a Condition for Adaptation to the Populist Radical Right
Flemming Juul Christiansen
4. Immigration, Integration and the Finns Party: Issue-ownership by Coincidence or by Stealth?
Mikko Kuisma and Mikael Nygård
5. The French Mainstream and the Front National’s Electoral Fortunes
João Carvalho
6. Accommodating the Dutch Populist Radical Right in a Multi-Party System: Success or Failure?
Marijn van Klingeren, Andrej Zaslove and Bertjan Verbeek
7. Sweden: From Deviant Case to PRR Hotbed?
Anders Widfeldt
8. Concluding Remarks
Pontus Odmalm
Tables and Figures
Chapter 1
Figure 1. Aggregate Manifesto Positions on the Immigration 'Issue' (2002 - 2015)
Table 1. Results for the Populist Radical Right, 1956 – 2015 (%); national/federal level elections
Table 2. Case Parties and Votes (2002 – 2015)
Table 3. Breakdown of Positions on the Immigration ‘Issue’, 2002 – 2015.
Table 4. Was an aggregate R/A-choice offered by one or more mainstream parties? (2002 – 2015)
Table 5. Subcategories of the immigration ‘issue’ where an R/A-choice was offered by one or more mainstream parties (2002 – 2015)
Table 6. Changes to PRR vote share (2002 – 2015)
Chapt
Biography
Pontus Odmalm is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Edinburgh.
Eve Hepburn is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh.
