PoP - Populism & Far Right

Mudde and Kaltwasser

• Populism is widely used and unclear term

• Mudde’s definition: a thin-centred ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ and ‘the corrupt elite,’ and which argues that politics should be an expression of the general will of the people

  • Thin and requires a host ideology

• Populism is based on the idea of radical democracy (vs. liberal democracy with minority rights)

  • Denunciation of oppressive power relations and the struggles for transforming this situation

• Positive effects: Inclusion of marginalized groups & ideological bridge across different political coalitions

• Negative effects: erode checks and balances, ignore minority rights & moralization of politics 

• Exclusionary vs inclusionary populism depends on the definition of ‘the people’

  • Latin America is inclusionary - socio-economic definition

  • Europe is exclusionary - ethnic definition

Canovan

• Democracy always has conditions that can lead to populism due to inherent tension

  • ‘Pragmatic’ quality - politics keeps people in order– non-violent system of processing conflict

  • ‘Redemptive’ quality - government represents the people  

• Populism threatens liberal democracy

  • Threatens minority rights

Engler

• Centrist anti-establishment parties (CAPs) are populist parties due to anti-corruption rhetoric

• Existence is fragile: reach political office too early, lack experienced personnel, lack a stable core of supporters

• Once CAPs are in power, they must use reframed protest, issue, or mainstream strategies to stay in power 

Peters & Pierre

• Populism has many forms based on the regime and locus of politics

  • Electoral populism: Trump, Silvio Berlusconi, Boris Johnson

    • Mobilization of voters typically excluded from established parties

  • Direct Democracy: seen in referendums such as Brexit

  • Electoral Authoritarianism 

  • Consultative authoritarianism

• Populism and nationalism are also confused because populist politics often emphasize nationalism (this is a side-effect of requiring a host ideology)

• Effects of populism: loss of expertise in governing, politicization, patronage, centralization

Weyland

• Populism focuses on personalistic leadership with mostly unorganized mass support

Mudde - Far Right

• Nationalist goal: monocultural state

  • Nativism: states should be exclusively inhabited by native group and nonnative people and ideas are threatening to the homogenous state

• Extreme Right: 

  • Combination of nativism, authoritarianism, and populism

  • Examples: Dutch LPF, Norwegian FRP, Italian MS-FT, etc

• Radical right parties will often have anti-establishment rhetoric making them populist

• Populist radical right parties have an in group and out group

  • Jews, Muslims, and Roma (“Gypsies”) are particularly targeted

  • Notably Chinese are not targeted

Rydgren

• Radical right parties and movements emphasize ethnonationalism and aim for an ethnically homogeneous state

• Immigration is the largest threat: identity, criminality, unemployment, welfare users

• Only extreme right is anti democracy

• Radical right prioritizes sociocultural issues around national identity

  • French Front National adopt the idea of “nouvelle droite” to claim the right to preserve national culture/identity

• New radical right is also characterized by populism (parties tend to view society as “ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, the ‘pure’ people versus ‘the corrupt elite’ )

• Rydgren - ethnic nationalism dominates over populist ideologies

• Radical right is predominantly supported by working-class and men

  • Highly educated voters are underrepresented

  • Supply reason: sociocultural dimension is becoming stronger in wright wing parties 

• Media has also contributed to mobilization - personalization of issues benefits right wing parties

• Internet is beneficial for radical-right movements 

Coffé

• Women are significantly underrepresented in voting for radical right parties

• Common arguments that all fail

  • Blue collar jobs most threatened - “losers of modernisation” (Betz)

  • Gender differences in authoritarian attitudes - men value strictness of law and individual responsibility more; women value compassionate politics

  • Women are more involved in the church which condemns anti-immigrant attitudes

  • Radical right parties play on gender roles – beleive women should be in traditional roles

• One explanation could be men lead most parties – when Le Pen took over the Front National party, the gap narrowed

Golder

• Radical right is characterized by populism, nationalism, facism

• Demand side

  • Modern grievances - modernization losers (workers and low level managers)

  • Economic grievances - competition for resources (with immigrants)

  • Cultural grievances - social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner) people associate with similar individuals & inherent desire for self-esteem -> view of own group as superior

• Supply side

  • Favourable political opportunity structure - existing electoral rules and competition, media, cleavage structure

  • Strong party organization - exploitation of structures depends on organization

  • Winning ideology - blur economic position to maintain cross-class coalition from nativist agenda

• Large variations of far right support on sub national levels in Europe 

Krause et al.

• Mainstream party strategies affect success of radical right parties 

  • Accommodative strategies lead to radical right support

Halikiopoulou

• Radical right and left oppose Europe (euroscepticism)

  • Right on ethnic grounds, left on civic grounds

• OLS estimators show that more nationalistic parties are more eurosceptic

What is populism?

• Mudde and Kaltwasser’s definition: a thin-centred ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ and ‘the corrupt elite,’ and which argues that politics should be an expression of the general will of the people

  • This requires a host-ideology (often the radical right)

  • Can also have a ‘forgotten middle’

• Can be inclusive or exclusive based on the definition of ‘the people’

• Commonly associated with strong charismatic leaders and weak organizations

• What are ‘strands’ of populism? - populism with different host ideologies

• Usefulness: if agreed upon, it is useful to understand the last 10-20 years of politics – can identify common themes in rhetorical styles

Examples of populism:

• Donald Trump in the US

• AfD in Germany

• Brexit

What has contributed to the rise of populism? What are the causes of populism? Supply side explanation?

• Supply side

  • Institutional:

    • Electoral systems with low thresholds (PR) make it easier (France’s LFI and RN)

      • Can still breakthrough in majoritarian systems through established parties (Trump, BoJo)

    • High electoral volatility and mainstream convergence → German AfD

    • US and Eastern European politicians are unable to polarise competition around economic issues due to neoliberal consensus → instead move to constructing and pushing a sociocultural divide in which parties actually display meaningful differences. By creating this new cultural field of debate it opens up a lot of electoral possibilities (Kitschelt et al.)

    • Rise of issue based voting results in weaker party ties → opportunity for populists

    • Mass media (Mazzoleni, Valentim)

      • Decentralized media

      • Social media breaks down social norms due to anonymity

What has contributed to the rise of populism? What are the causes of populism? Demand side explanation?

• Sociological determinants: 

  • Durkheim’s mass society theory: Society is constituted by solidarity between individuals whose values form a collective consciousness that results in social integration

    • Modernization has led to breakdown of society

    • Populism provided a catch-all identity 

    • Ex: latin america (Dix)

  • Industrialization (Lachau) creates too many identities → populist leader unifies them (MAGA)

• Economic: 

  • Losers of globalisation (Betz) 

  • Weaker explanation because populist parties mobilise mostly on cultural dimension

• Short term factors: Financial crisis response (Greece - Palaiologos), rising inequality

• Nuances: Socioeconomic populism is more prevalent in Latin America 

What are the threats of populism?

• Populist success → mainstream political figures copy methods → danger of shifting from policy to personalist and negative rhetoric politics (Mudde)

• Funke et al (2023) - Countries with populist regimes experience significant decline in real GDP per capita, populism is cyclical, populism lead to a decline in democratic institutions (judicial constraints, free elections, media freedom) over 15 years. 

• Real life examples:

  • Court packing - trump

  • Media monopolisation - Netanyahu (Israel) Erdogan (Turkey) 

What is the far right?

• Parties and movements characterized by nativism, authoritarianism, and populism (Mudde)

What has contributed to the rise of the far-right? What are the causes of the far right?

Golder’s demand and supply side explanation:

• Demand side: modern grievances, economic grievances, and cultural grievances 

• Supply side: favourable political opportunity structure, strong party organization, and winning ideology

How are the far right and populism connected?

• Far right is a host ideology for populism in its nativist definition of ‘the people’