Do They Make a Difference?: The Policy Influence of Radical Right Populist Parties in Western Europe

Benjamin Biard · Laurent Bernhard · Hans-Georg Betz

Oct 2019 · ECPR Press

About this ebook

Over the last three decades, numerous radical right populist parties (RRPP) have emerged, developed, and strengthened their electoral weight in Western Europe. Yet, while several RRPP have managed to formally participate in government coalitions (such as in Italy, Austria, and Switzerland) or to informally support minority governments (such as in Denmark, and in The Netherlands) and while other RRPP have become highly visible opposition forces (such as in France, and Germany), the influence exercised by RRPP remain underexplored. It is essential to focus on their policy influence because of their electoral strength but also because they are often perceived by journalists, citizens, policy-makers as well as by researchers as a threat to democracy. As a reaction, mainstream parties tend to adopt specific strategies - such as measures of militant democracy towards RRPP.

The aim of this book is to contribute to theoretical and empirical research in political science by bringing together a variety of contributions about the influence of RRPP in terms of policies on their core issues. To that end, we ask under which circumstances these parties are able to do so in contemporary Western Europe. This book proposes to focus on the role played by party status. Are RRPP better able to leave their imprints when they are in power or support minority governments than when they hold opposition or outsider status in Western Europe?

About the author

Benjamin Biard is a F.R.S.-FNRS research fellow in political science at the Institute of Political Science Louvain-Europe. His main research interests include populism, the influence of populist parties on public policy and democracy. Benjamin is co-secretary of the Francophone Belgian Political Science Association (ABSP).

Laurent Bernhard is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich. His PhD thesis focused on the campaign strategies adopted by political actors in the context of direct-democratic campaigns. Together with Marco Steenbergen (University of Zurich) and Hanspeter Kriesi (EUI, Florence), he currently leads a project that deals with populism in Western Europe in the framework of the research programme NCCR Democracy.

Hans-Georg Betz is currently Adjunct Professor in political science at the University of Zurich. Previously he taught at York University, Toronto, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC and Koç University, Istanbul. He is the author of several books and articles on radical rightwing populism in Europe.