Date: 2019
Type: Working Paper
When do populist radical right parties succeed? : salience, stigma, and the case of the end of Iberian 'exceptionalism'
Working Paper, EUI RSCAS, 2019/26, Migration Policy Centre
DENNISON, James, MENDES, Mariana S., When do populist radical right parties succeed? : salience, stigma, and the case of the end of Iberian 'exceptionalism', EUI RSCAS, 2019/26, Migration Policy Centre - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/62226
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
This study offers an explanatory model for variation in electoral results for ‘populist radical right’ parties in Europe over time and across countries. We build on and fuse previous explanations to offer a theoretical model that combines supply- and demand-side explanations. We argue that such parties succeed when they are able to avoid the stigma of extremism by initially catering to an unsatiated demand of right-wing voters on a ‘less controversial’, highly salient issue. With their relatively minor place in the party system confirmed and equipped with a ‘reputation shield’ that extremist parties do not enjoy, they are able to refocus on more controversial, other highly salient issues, typically immigration, potentially leading to greater potential mobilisation. We use the case of the Spanish party Vox, as well as the erstwhile, anomalous lack of success for similar parties across Portugal and Spain, to test our framework. We show that both the historic lack of populist radical right party success across Iberia, the relative greater success in the rest of western Europe and the recent rise of Vox can be explained neatly by this framework of salience, stigma and supply.
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/62226
ISSN: 1028-3625
Series/Number: EUI RSCAS; 2019/26; Migration Policy Centre
Publisher: European University Institute
Keyword(s): Populist radical right Spain Portugal Issue salience Social stigma Vox
Files associated with this item
- Name:
- RSCAS 2019_26revised.pdf
- Size:
- 906.1Kb
- Format:
- Description:
- Full-text in Open Access