Transformation of West European Political Landscape and Institutionalization of Anti-System Politics

Abstract

Despite the large body of literature on the emergence and success of new political parties in Western Europe, few, if any, attention has been paid to investigate new parties from a systemic perspective, therefore exploring their potential effects on party systems. This article focuses on Party System Innovation (PSInn), defined as the aggregate level of 'newness' recorded in a party system at a given election. After having reviewed the extant literature on the topic, the article discusses what a new party is and provides a new index to measure PSInn. The article analyses the evolution of PSInn across 324 elections held in 19 West European countries from 1945 to 2015 and its cumulative effects over time. Although in most countries the party landscape today is still very similar to the one appearing after WWII, data offers clear evidence of a sharp increase of innovation in the last few years.

Transformation of the Political Parties of the EU Member States

“…At the same time, they create a new competitive environment. In most cases, the emerging new parties are "anti-system ones" that are extremely difficult to typology within the framework of the classical matrix "right-left centre" (Weinstein, 2018). Almost all researchers agree that the phenomenon of antisystemism is extremely complex and there is a clear tendency to its further complication because within the framework of ideological criteria new types of political parties can be placed along the entire political spectrum: from libertarianism to ultra-right conservatism and nationalism (Parfenova, 2015).…”

“…According to G. Weinstein's (2018) estimates, since the beginning of the 21st century, 69 new parties have been created in Western Europe, more than 40 of them have taken part in 43 election campaigns at all levels. By the beginning of the new electoral cycle 2015-2019, within which elections of all levels were held in almost all EU countries, as well as elections to the European Parliament in May 2019, the quantitative growth of parties became one of the significant parameters of the characteristics of the modern party systems.…”