Euroscepticism and the electoral success of the far right: the role of the strategic interaction between center and far right

Szöcsik, Edina; Polyakova, Alina

doi:10.1057/s41304-018-0162-y

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Hence, in stable democracies, the breakthrough of radical right parties has contributed to an increased polarisation at the party level, because they legitimise extreme ideological positions, while moving opposing parties and voters to the ideological extremes (Bischof & Wagner 2019;Castanho Silva 2018;Mudde 2013). Critical contexts certainly helped the breakthrough of the radical right parties: the anti-incumbency vote has usually punished the mainstream parties that ruled the country during the recession years (Downes & Loveless 2018), and the anti-immigration vote has fuelled support for far-right parties that, in times of economic crisis, have taken hard stances against immigrants and other scapegoats like the European Union (Pardos-Prado 2015;Szöcsik & Polyakova 2019). In an effort to face these challenges, mainstream conservative parties may strategically emphasise those issues that have a chance of mitigating electoral losses (Downes & Loveless 2018) by changing their platforms as a reaction against the new radical competitors (Mudde 2013;Rooduijn, De Lange & van der Brug 2014).…”

Section: Polarisation and Party Competitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polarisation and Electoral Realignment: The Case of the Right-Wing Parties in Spain

Teruel¹

2020

South European Society and Politics

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The article analyses the consequences of elite polarisation at the mass level. We study the electoral re-alignment within the right-wing Spanish electorate in recent years, whereby support for the long-predominant Partido Popular has been eroded dramatically to the benefit of new challengers.Measuring ideological polarisation at the party system level and at the individual level, we show how the polarising strategy implemented by the liberal Ciudadanos -and imitated by PP -to gain support from the right-wing electorate paved the way for a massive transfer of conservative voters to the radical-right Vox. The results provide counter-intuitive evidence about the electoral effects of elite polarisation: those individuals who perceived party polarisation less tended to vote more for the radical right party, while those who perceived greater polarisation among parties were more likely to vote for moderate forces.

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Section: Polarisation and Party Competitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polarisation and Electoral Realignment: The Case of the Right-Wing Parties in Spain

Teruel¹

2020

South European Society and Politics

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“…RPP have become the most successful new party family in Europe over the last quarter of a century (Painter, 2013: 9). The conceptual core of right-wing populism includes not only antielitism and nativism, but Euroscepticism (Pirro et al, 2018;Vasilopoulou, 2018;Szöcsik and Polyakova, 2018) and anti-pluralism (Taggart, 2012), which threaten the results of the European integration project and the institutions of EU multilevel political construction.…”

Section: Populism: a Threat To Or Resource For Resilience?mentioning

confidence: 99%

EU Political System’s Resilience in the Age of Politicization: Lessons From the 2019 European Parliament Elections

Shein

2020

SSRN Journal

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The democratic deficit problem in the EU polity is becoming more relevant in the context of the multifaceted crisis and the politicization of European integration. Taking into account that the category of resilience is actively used in the official EU discourse as a system's ability to reform and to counter threats, it is interesting, from a research point of view, to consider the use of resilience as an analytical optics to view the current EU internal political development. This article analyzes, in terms of resilience, the attempts of the EU's mainstream actors to improve the democratic elements of the EU's institutional structure during the European Parliament (EP) elections 2019 and their relationships with the agents of EU politicizationright-wing populist actors. The main findings suggest that (1) EU politicization exacerbates the problem of the democratic deficit and forces mainstream actors to seek strategies to increase the resilience of the whole system; (2) in order to preserve their own subjectness in the face of growing populism and the politicization of European integration, mainstream actors choose a strategy of depoliticization, which has decreased the EU resilience; (3) right-wing populist actors are agents of politicization, they play an ambivalent role in relation to EU resilience, being a resource and a threat. JEL Classification: Z.

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“…"Sanitary cordon", as well as the strategy of ignoring, demands a high level of coordinated actions between mainstream parties. A fail in the "sanitary cordon" strategy may result in, as Cappocia argued, mainstream parties being temptation to defect from the center, in order to regain the votes that they are losing to extremists (2001: 438), especially center-right parties (Szöcsik and Polyakova, 2018).…”

Section: Strategy Of Isolation Implies Political And/or Legal Restricmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, if the process of "dedemonisation" or 'demarcation" of RPP with traditional radical right parties and movements (Rothwell, 2017), and presenting themselves as respectable political forces was successful, the effectiveness of isolating and demonising the RPP by the political mainstream, can bring the opposite effect in increasing the public support of RPP (Art, 2007: 335; van Spanje, 2017: 10-11). (Downs, 2001:27) On the other hand, the cooptation strategy legitimises the far-right agenda, especially for nativist anti-migrant and anti-EU positions (Szöcsik and Polyakova, 2018) and erodes the boundaries between RPP and the political mainstream. The strategy of the cooptation, creates conditions for two counter and intersecting processes: "mainstreamisastion" the RPP and the "populist contamination" (Rydgren, 2005) of the political mainstream's discourse.…”

Section: Strategy Of Isolation Implies Political And/or Legal Restricmentioning

confidence: 99%

European Mainstream Parties' Strategies in Response to The Right-Wing Populism: The UK Case

Shein

2019

SSRN Journal

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The article investigates the questions how and why, the European mainstream responds to the challenge of the right-wing populist parties (RPP), by analyzing the UK case. Using a mixed methodological approach, which includes the theoretical tools of historical institutionalism, Down's classification of the mainstream's strategies and Heinze's approach to analyzing the factors of its choice, we survey the strategic responses of the UK political mainstream (Conservatives and Labour), towards RPP (UK Independence Party). Findings suggest that the political mainstream could move from exclusion strategies, to predominantly inclusion strategies. In the UK case-cooptation of UKIP's policy positions with political and legal isolation. Transit to these strategies takes place under the influence of the electoral and ideological development of UKIP, the salience of migration issues, strategies of other mainstream parties and the historical conditions that define available options and shape the selection process, in the UKparty-based Euroscepticism.

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Euroscepticism and the electoral success of the far right: the role of the strategic interaction between center and far right

Cited by 11 publications

References 38 publications

Polarisation and Electoral Realignment: The Case of the Right-Wing Parties in Spain

Polarisation and Electoral Realignment: The Case of the Right-Wing Parties in Spain

EU Political System’s Resilience in the Age of Politicization: Lessons From the 2019 European Parliament Elections

European Mainstream Parties' Strategies in Response to The Right-Wing Populism: The UK Case

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