Sarah L. de Lange

A New Winning Formula?: The Programmatic Appeal of the Radical Right

In an updated version of his well-known work on the radical right, Kitschelt attributes the persistent success of this type of party to a new winning formula. Where the radical right first campaigned on a neo-liberal and authoritarian programme, it now presents a more centrist economic position. The article tests this idea through a reconstruction of the positions of the French Front National, the Flemish Vlaams Blok and the Dutch Lijst Pim Fortuyn, and establishes that some, but not all, radical right parties make use of the new winning formula. Moreover, innovative analysis of the positions of radical right parties in West European party systems reveals that Kitschelts theory needs to be improved on several points, most notably when it comes to the definition of concepts and the operationalization of dimensions.In an updated version of his well-known work on the radical right, Kitschelt attributes the persistent success of this type of party to a new winning formula. Where the radical right first campaigned on a neo-liberal and authoritarian programme, it now presents a more centrist economic position. The article tests this idea through a reconstruction of the positions of the French Front National, the Flemish Vlaams Blok and the Dutch Lijst Pim Fortuyn, and establishes that some, but not all, radical right parties make use of the new winning formula. Moreover, innovative analysis of the positions of radical right parties in West European party systems reveals that Kitschelts theory needs to be improved on several points, most notably when it comes to the definition of concepts and the operationalization of dimensions.

A populist Zeitgeist? Programmatic contagion by populist parties in Western Europe

In this article, we examine the programmatic reactions to the rise of populist parties. It has been argued that populism is not necessarily the prerogative of populist parties; it has been adopted by mainstream parties as well. The article investigates whether populism is contagious. On the basis of the results of a content analysis of election manifestos of parties in five Western European countries (France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom), we conclude that the programmes of mainstream parties have not become more populist in recent years. We find no evidence that mainstream parties change their programmes when confronted with electoral losses or successful populist challengers. Yet, we do find that populist parties change their own programmes when they have been successful: Their initial success makes them tone down their populism.

New alliances: why mainstream parties govern with radical right-wing populist parties

This article investigates the recent government participation of a number of radical right-wing populist parties in West European democracies. With the help of coalition formation theories the government coalitions in which these parties have participated are characterised and inferences are made about the reasons for the cooperation between mainstream right and radical right-wing populist parties. The accuracy of these inferences is then examined in more detail by analysing the changing electoral fortunes and party positions of both mainstream and radical right-wing populist parties. These analyses demonstrate that office, policy and votes made mainstream right parties turn to radical right-wing populist parties as new coalition partners and that two important changes in West European party systems have enabled the formation of the new alliances, the first being an electoral shift to the right and the second the convergence of party positions of mainstream right and radical right-wing populist parties.

Differential representation? The gaps between mainstream and niche party representatives and their voters in The Netherlands

This paper investigates the differences in the representational performance of mainstream and niche parties. It hypothesizes that mainstream parties represent their voters better on the socio-economic dimension and issues, while niche parties represent their voters better on the socio-cultural dimension and specific socio-cultural issues. To test these expectations, the congruence between Dutch local representatives of both mainstream and niche parties and their voters is measured using two surveys, one among Dutch voters and one conducted by the authors among a representative sample of municipal councillors. By analysing ‘many-to-many’ scores of congruence, which compare the distributions of the preferences of the representatives and their voters, it is concluded that mainstream parties do not consistently represent their voters better on specific issues or dimensions than niche parties, or vice versa. Instead, a mismatch between the preferences of representatives and their voters sometimes occurs particularly on issues that a party ‘owns’, because representatives tend to take more radical positions on these issues than their supporters.