Elisabeth Carter

Proportional Representation and the Fortunes of Right-Wing Extremist Parties

This article examines the relationship between electoral systems and extremist political parties. Focusing on the West European parties of the extreme right, it first investigates the extent to which district magnitude and electoral formula - the two main dimensions of electoral systems - influence the scores of these parties. It then considers the overall impact of the disproportionality of the electoral system. The article concludes that whilst proportional electoral systems do undeniably make it easier for extremist parties to gain legislative representation, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that they promote extremism. Instead, the share of the vote going to extremist parties appears unrelated to the type of electoral system employed.

Christian Religiosity and Voting for West European Radical Right Parties

This article examines the relationship between Christian religiosity and the support for radical right parties in Western Europe. Drawing on theories of electoral choice and on socio-psychological literature largely ignored by scholars of electoral behaviour, it suggests and tests a number of competing hypotheses. The findings demonstrate that while religiosity has few direct effects, and while religious people are neither more nor less hostile towards ethnic minorities and thereby neither more nor less prone to vote for a radical right party, they are not ‘available’ to these parties because they are still firmly attached to Christian Democratic or conservative parties. However, given increasing de-alignment, this ‘vaccine effect’ is likely to become weaker with time.

How European Integration Changes National Parties: Evidence from a 15-Country Study

This article examines the impact of European integration on the balance of power within national political parties. It does this by drawing on the results of a survey of key actors in up to 55 parties in the 15 pre-2004 enlargement member states. The analyses show that, when they are involved in EU-level decision-making, party elites are relatively powerful vis-à-vis their national parties and that in a number of instances their intra-party power has also increased over time. National parties have, to some extent, attempted to constrain their elites but appear to be fighting a losing battle. Although there are some minor differences by country and by party, the empowerment of party elites is a general phenomenon. This research provides an empirical dimension to the existing research on the Europeanisation of national political parties and presents an important substantiation of the widely discussed democratic deficit that exists within the EU system of governance.

The extreme right in Western Europe

1. The varying electoral fortunes of the West European parties of the extreme right 2. Party ideology 3. Party organization and leadership 4. Party competition 5. The institutional environment 6. Accounting for varying electoral fortunes Appendix A. The ideological positions of West European political parties Appendix B. The political space in the different countries of Western Europe Appendix C. The disproportionality of elections, 1979-2003

Does PR promote political extremism? Evidence from the West European parties of the extreme right1

Abstract Focusing on the West European parties of the extreme right, this article considers the validity of the claim that proportional electoral systems promote political extremism. After a systematic, empirical examination of the relationship between electoral systems and the electoral scores of right‐wing extremist political parties it concludes that there is little evidence to support the assumption that PR fosters extremist party success. Instead, the share of the vote going to these parties appears unrelated to the type of electoral system employed.

Right-wing extremism/radicalism: reconstructing the concept

Abstract This article reconstructs the concept of right-wing extremism/radicalism. Using Mudde’s influential 1995 study as a foundation, it first canvasses the recent academic literature to explore how the concept has been described and defined. It suggests that, despite the frequent warnings that we lack an unequivocal definition of this concept, there is actually a high degree of consensus amongst the definitions put forward by different scholars. However, it argues that the characteristics mentioned in some of the definitions have not been organized meaningfully. It, therefore, moves on to distinguish between the defining properties of right-wing extremism/radicalism and the accompanying ones, and in so doing it advances a minimal definition of the concept as an ideology that encompasses authoritarianism, anti-democracy and exclusionary and/or holistic nationalism.