During the past few years a radical populist right has emerged in a number of West European democracies. Mixing xenophobia with a neoliberal economic program, radical right-wing parties have been increasingly successful at the polls. Their success can be explained partly in terms of a protest against immigration from third world countries and the established political parties and partly as the result of the profound social and cultural transformation of advanced western democracies.

The New Politics of Resentment: Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe

Mark Franklin Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. £16.99, pbk; ISBN 0521541476; £45 hbk; ISBN 0521833647

Voter Turnout and the Dynamics of Electoral Competition in Established Democracies since 1945

Abstract It has been suggested that political distrust is associated with lower levels of voter turnout and increased votes for challenger or populist parties. We investigate the relationship between political (dis)trust and electoral behaviour using the 2009 Belgian Election Study. Belgium presents an interesting case because compulsory voting (with an accompanying turnout rate of 90.4 per cent) compels distrusting voters to participate in elections. Nevertheless, distrusting voters are significantly more inclined to cast a blank or invalid vote. Second, distrust is positively associated with a preference for extreme right (Vlaams Belang) and populist (Lijst Dedecker) parties. Third, in party systems where there is no supply of viable challengers (i.e. the French-speaking region of Belgium), the effect of political trust on party preference is limited. We conclude that electoral effects of political distrust are determined by the electoral and party system and the supply of electoral protest.

Where Do Distrusting Voters Turn if There is No Viable Exit or Voice Option? The Impact of Political Trust on Electoral Behaviour in the Belgian Regional

Formal models prove the possibility of positive feedback in collective action; the metaphors of historically minded observers convey the same insight. It is still neglected in the literature on social movements, which emphasizes exogenous factors—above all, political opportunities—rather than endogenous processes. This paper draws on an intensive investigation of strikes for the eight-hour day in Chicago in May 1886. It demonstrates that changes in economic and political circumstances cannot explain the magnitude of the strike wave. More importantly, it provides evidence for positive feedback in collective mobilization, showing how optimistic expectations percolated through the working class in the spring of 1886. As each new group of workers became hopeful enough to organize, the fact of their organization inspired other groups to follow suit. New hopes gave rise to new organization; new organization became evidence that such hopes were justified.

Positive Feedback in Collective Mobilization: The American Strike Wave of 1886

Over the past decade, the EU has faced multiple crises. In the introduction to this collection, we argue that this ‘polycrisis’ is fracturing the European political system across multiple, simultan...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13501763.2019.1619803

Introduction: the European Union beyond the polycrisis? Integration and politicization in an age of shifting cleavages

European Parliament elections create structural advantages for challenger parties. Building on the second-order elections theory, this article argues that European Parliament elections foster chall...

/pdf/do-european-parliament-elections-foster-challenger-parties-4tu7xr2vpl.pdf

Do European Parliament elections foster challenger parties' success on the national level?

Support for Radical Parties in Western Europe: Structural Conflicts and Political Dynamics

This paper studies the changing composition of activists of the German challenger party AfD during its formative period. Drawing on the spatial density of party activists linked to socio-contextual variables and a pre-post design, we demonstrate that the challenger party's member base has significantly transformed in the course of the party's institutionalisation. Owing to a rapid influx of new members and the withdrawal of others after an internal split of the party, the share of activists in high-income areas decreased significantly, while it increased in socio-structurally disadvantaged areas within Germany. The findings suggests that the changing member base has fuelled the programmatic radicalisation of the party.

A Transformation From Within? Dynamics of Party Activists and the Rise of the German AfD

The restructuring of British and German party politics in times of crisis

Does the populist radical right benefit from increased electoral mobilization? Integrating theories of political grievances with accounts of party competition in Western Europe, we contend that the...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1354068820985186

Julia Schulte-Cloos

Papers

Do European Parliament elections foster challenger parties' success on the national level?

Support for Radical Parties in Western Europe: Structural Conflicts and Political Dynamics

A Transformation From Within? Dynamics of Party Activists and the Rise of the German AfD

The restructuring of British and German party politics in times of crisis

Electoral participation, political disaffection, and the rise of the populist radical right: