Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T14:00:27.242Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Political and ideological normalization: quality of government, mainstream-right ideological positions and extreme-right support

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2021

Christos Vrakopoulos Open the ORCID record for Christos Vrakopoulos [Opens in a new window]
Christos Vrakopoulos*
Affiliation:
Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies, University of Bath, Bath, UK
*
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article aims to explain the variation in the electoral support for extreme-right parties (ERPs) in Europe. The extant literature on the far-right party family does not answer this question specifically with regard to the extreme-right variants for two main reasons. Firstly, theories did not expect the electoral success of these parties in post-war Europe due to their anti-democratic profiles and association with fascism. Secondly, despite the fact that they acknowledge the differences between the parties under the far-right umbrella – namely, the extreme and the radical – they normally do not take these differences into account, and if so, they focus on the radical-right parties. This article shows that electoral support for ERPs is associated with low quality of government and highly conservative mainstream-right parties. The former creates political legitimization for anti-democratic parties and the latter ideological normalization of extreme right.

Keywords

extreme-rightquality of governmentparty competitionmainstream-right
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 56 - 73
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Consortium for Political Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agerberg, M. (2017), Failed expectations: Quality of government and support for populist parties in Europe. European Journal of Political Research 56, 578–600. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475−6765.12203 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amemiya, T. (1984), ‘Tobit models: A survey’, Journal of Econometrics 24, 3–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arzheimer, K. (2009), ‘Contextual Factors and the Extreme Right Vote in Western Europe, 1980–2002’, American Journal of Political Science 53, 259–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arzheimer, K. and Carter, E. (2006), Political Opportunity Structures and Right-Wing Extremist Party Success. European Journal of Political Research 45, 419–443. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475−6765.2006.00304.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bäck, H. and Hadenius, A. (2008), Democracy and state capacity: exploring a J-shaped relationship. Governance 21, 1–24. −https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468−0491.2007.00383.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakker, R., de Vries, C., Edwards, E., Hooghe, L., Jolly, S., Marks, G., Polk, J., Rovny, J., Steenbergen, M. and Vachudova, M.A. (2015), Measuring party positions in Europe: the Chapel Hill expert survey trend file, 1999–2010. Party Politics 21, 143–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068812462931 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bale, T. (2018), Who leads and who follows? The symbiotic relationship between UKIP and the Conservatives – and populism and Euroscepticism. Politics. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395718754718 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betz, H.-G. (1994), Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boräng, F., Nistotskaya, M. and Xezonakis., G. (2017), ‘The quality of government determinants of support for democracy’. Journal of Public Affairs 17, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bozóki, A. (2008), ‘Consolidation or Second Revolution? The Emergence of the New Right in Hungary’, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 24(2): 191–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brambor, T., Clark, W.R. and Golder, M. (2006), Understanding interaction models: improving empirical analyses. Political Analysis 14, 63–82. https://doi.org/10.1093/pan/mpi014 Google Scholar
Bustikova, L. (2009), The extreme right in Eastern Europe: EU accession and the Quality of Governance. Journal of Contemporaty European Studies https://doi.org/10.1080/14782800903108668 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caiani, M., della Porta, D., Wagemann, C., della Porta, D. and Wagemann, C. (2012), The Extreme Right and Social Movement Studies: An Introduction. In: Mobilizing on the Extreme Right Germany, Italy, and the United States. [Online].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, E. (2018), ‘Right-wing extremism/radicalism: reconstructing the concept’, Journal of Political Ideoligies 23, 157–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charron, N. and Lapuente, V. (2010), ‘Does Democracy Produce Quality of Government ?’, European Journal of Political Research 49, 443–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coffé, H., Heyndels, B. and Vermeir, J. (2007), ‘Fertile grounds for extreme right-wing parties: Explaining the Vlaams Blok’s electoral success’, Electoral Studies 26, 142–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coppedge, M., Gerring, J., Knutsen, C.H., Lindberg, S.I., Teorell, J., Altman, D., Bernhard, M., Fish, M.S., Glynn, A., Hicken, A., Luhrmann, A., Marquardt, K. L., McMann, K., Paxton, P., Pemstein, D., Seim, B., Sigman, R., Skaaning, S. E., Staton, J., Wilson, S., Cornell, A., Alizada, N., Gastaldi, L., Gjerløw, H., Hindle, G., Ilchenko, N., Maxwell, L., Mechkova, V., Medzihorsky, J., von Römer, J., Sundström, A., Tzelgov, E., Wang, Y., Wig, T. and Ziblatt, D. (2020), ”V-Dem [Country–Year/Country–Date] Dataset v10”. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, R.A. (1971), Polyarchy: Participation and opposition, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dahlberg, S. and Holmberg, S. (2014), ‘Democracy and Bureaucracy: how their Quality Matters for Popular Satisfaction’, West European Politics 37(3): 515–537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahlström, C. and Esaiasson, P. (2013), ‘The immigration issue and anti-immigrant party success in Sweden 1970–2006: A deviant case analysis’, Party Politics 19, 343–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahlström, C. and Sundell, A. (2012), ‘A losing gamble. How mainstream parties facilitate anti-immigrant party success’, Electoral Studies 31, 353–363.Google Scholar
Down, I. and Han, K.J. (2020), ‘Marginalisation or legitimation? Mainstream party positioning on immigration and support for radical right parties’, West European Politics 43(7): 1388–1414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterly, W. and Levine, R. (2003), ‘Tropics, germs, and crops: how endowments influence economic development’, Journal of Monetary Economics 50, 3–39.Google Scholar
Easton, D. (1975), ‘A reassessment of the concept of political support’, British Journal of Political Science 5, 435–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eatwell, R. (2000), ‘The Rebirth of the “Extreme Right” in Western Europe?’, Parliamentary Affairs 53, 407–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ennser, L. (2012), ‘The homogeneity of West European party families: The radical right in comparative perspective’, Party Politics 18, 151–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, P. and Rauch, J.E. (1999), ‘Bureaucracy and Growth: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effects of “Weberian” State Structures on Economic Growth’, American Sociological Review 64, 748–765.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, R. and Goodwin, M.J., (2010), ‘Angry White Men: individual and Contextual Predictors of Support for the British National Party’, Political Studies 58(1): 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, F. (2013) What is governance? Governance. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12035 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gidron, N. and Ziblatt, D. (2019), ‘Center-Right Political Parties in Advanced Democracies’, Annual Review of Political Science 22, 17–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Givens, T.E. (2005), Voting radical right in Western Europe, Voting Radical Right in Western Europe, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golder, M. (2003), ‘Explaining variation in the success of extreme right parties in Western Europe’, Comparative Political Studies 36, 432–466.Google Scholar
Golder, M. (2016), ‘Far Right Parties in Europe’, Annual Review of Political Science 19, 477–497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, M. (2011), New British Fascism: Rise of the British National Party (1st ed.). Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, W. (2000), Econometric analysis, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Greene, W. (2001a), Fixed and random effects in nonlinear models. Unpublished manuscript, New York University, Stern School of Business.Google Scholar
Greene, W. (2001b), Marginal effects in the censored regression model. Unpublished manuscript, New York University, Stern School of Business.Google Scholar
Halikiopoulou, D. and Vasilopoulou, S. (2018), ‘Breaching the Social Contract: crises of Democratic Representation and Patterns of Extreme Right Party Support’, Government and Opposition 53, 26–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halikiopoulou, D. and Vlandas, T. (2016), ‘Risks, Costs and Labour Markets: Explaining Cross-National Patterns of Far-Right Party Success in European Parliament Elections’, Journal of Common Market Studies 54, 636–655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, R.E. and Jones, C.I. (1999), ‘Why do some countries produce so much more output per worker than others?’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 114, 83–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hix, S. and Marsh, M. (2007), ‘Punishment or protest? Understanding European parliament elections’, The Journal of Politics 69, 495–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmberg, S., Rothstein, B. and Nasiritousi, N. (2009), ‘Quality of Government: what You Get’, Annual Review of Political Science 12, 135–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ignazi, P. (1992), ‘The silent counter-revolution’, European Journal of Political Research 22, 3–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ignazi, P. (2003), Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe, Oxford: Oxford UP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackman, R.W. and Volpert, K. (1996), ‘Conditions Favouring Parties of the Extreme Right in Western Europe’, British Journal Political Science 26, 501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jesuit, D.K., Paradowski, P.R. and Mahler, V.A. (2009), ‘Electoral support for extreme right-wing parties: A sub-national analysis of western European elections’, Electoral Studies 28, 279–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Just, A. (2017), ‘The far-right, immigrants, and the prospects of democracy satisfaction in Europe’, Party Politics 23, 507–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A. and Mastruzzi, M. (2009), Governance Matters VIII Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators. Policy Research Working Paper. 21, 1–105.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A. and Mastruzzi, M. (2010), The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Methodology and Analytical Issues. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 5430. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1682130 Google Scholar
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A. and Zoido, P. (1999), Governance Matters. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 2196. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=188568 Google Scholar
Kitschelt, H.P. (2007), Growth and Persistence of the Radical Right in Postindustrial Democracies: advances and Challenges in Comparative Research. West European Politics 30, 1175–1206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitschelt, H.P. and McGann, A.J. (1995), The Radical Right in Western Europe A Comparative Analysis, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Klassen, A. (2018), ‘Human understanding measured across national (human) surveys: Country-year data’, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/KIPB57, Harvard Dataverse, V3, UNF:6:RkeJCJ4hGC/lVf3EgRqhoQ== [fileUNF]Google Scholar
Knack, S. and Keefer, P. (1997), ‘Does social capital have an economic payoff? A cross-country investigation’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 112, 1251–1288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knigge, P. (1998), ‘The ecological correlates of right-wing extremism in Western Europe’, European Journal of Political Research 34, 249–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linz, J. J. (1978). Crisis, breakdown, and reequilibration, in Linz, J. J. and Stepan, A. (eds), The breakdown of democratic regimes, Baltimore, MA: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 27–38.Google Scholar
Lipset, S.M. (1959), ‘Some Social Requisites of Democracy: economic Development and Political Legitimacy’, The American Political Science Review 53, 69–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magalhaes, P.C. (2014), ‘Government effectiveness and support for democracy’, European Journal of Political Research 53, 77–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mainwaring, M., Bejarano, A.M. and Pizarro Leongomez, E. (2006) (eds), The Crisis of Democratic Representation in the Andes, Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mauro, P. (1995), ‘Corruption and Growth’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 110, 618–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meguid, B.M. (2005), ‘Competition Between Unequals: The Role of Mainstream Party Strategy in Niche Party Success’, The American Political Science Review 99, 347–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Messing, V. and Ságvári, B. (2019). ‘Still divided but more open Mapping European attitudes towards migration before and after the migration crisis’. Budapest: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.Google Scholar
Mondon, A. and Winter, A. (2020), Reactionary Democracy How Racism and the Populist Far Right became Mainstream, London: Verso.Google Scholar
Mudde, C. (2007), Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe, Transformations of Populism in Europe and the Americas : History and Recent Tendencies, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C. (2010), ‘The populist radical right: a pathological normalcy’, West European Politics 33(6): 1167–1186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C. (2013), ‘Three decades of populist radical right parties in Western Europe: so what?’, European Journal of Political Research 52, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C. (2019), The Far Right Today, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Pardos-Prado, S. (2015), ‘How Can Mainstream Parties Prevent Niche Party Success? Center-Right Parties and the Immigration Issue’, The Journal of Politics. 77, 352-367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pardos-Prado, S., Lancee, B. and Sagarzazu, I. (2014), ‘Immigration and Electoral Change in Mainstream Political Space’. Political Behaviour 36, 847–874. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109−013−9248-y CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pemstein, D., Marquardt, K.L., Tzelgov, E., Wang, Y., Medzihorsky, J., Krusell, J., Miri, F. and von Römer, J. (2020), “The V-Dem Measurement Model: Latent Variable Analysis for Cross-National and Cross-Temporal Expert-Coded Data”. V-Dem Working Paper No. 21. 5th edition. University of Gothenburg: Varieties of Democracy Institute.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinto, A. and Raimundo, F. (2014), When parties Succeed: Party System (In)Stability and the 2008 Financial Crisis in Portugal.Google Scholar
Pirro, A.L.P.P. (2014), ‘Digging into the breeding ground: insights into the electoral performance of populist radical right parties in Central and Eastern Europe†’, East European Politics, 1–25.Google Scholar
Pytlas, B. (2016), Radical Right Parties in Central and Eastern Europe: Mainstream Party Competition and Electoral Fortune, Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Reif, K. and Schmitt, H. (1980), ‘Nine Second-Order National Elections: A Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of European Election Results’, European Journal of Political Research 8, 3–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodrik, D., Subramanian, A. and Trebbi, F. (2004), ‘Institutions rule: the primacy of institutions over geography and integration in economic development’, Journal of Economic Growth 9, 131–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothstein, B. (2009), ‘Creating political legitimacy: electoral democracy versus quality of government’, American Behavioral Scientist 53, 311–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seawright, J. (2012), Party-System Collapse, Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Sparling, R.A. (2018), Impartiality and the Definition of Corruption. Political Studies 66, 376–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Standaert, S. (2015), ‘Divining the Level of Corruption: a Bayesian State Space Approach’, Journal of Comparative Economics 43(3): 782–803.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swank, D. and Betz, H.G. (2003), ‘Globalization, the Welfare State and Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe’, Socio-Economic Review 1, 215–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teorell, J., Dahlberg, S., Holmberg, S., Rothstein, B., Alvarado Pachon, N. and Svensson, R. (2019), The Quality of Government Standard Dataset, version Jan19. University of Gothenburg: The Quality of Government Institute, http://www.qog.pol.gu.se doi: 10.18157/qogstdjan19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teorell, J., Dahlberg, S., Holmberg, S., Rothstein, B., Khomenko, A. and Svensson, R. (2017), The Quality of Government Standard Dataset, version Jan17. University of Gothenburg: The Quality of Government Institute, http://www.qog.pol.gu.se doi: 10.18157/QoGStdJan17 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teorell, J. and Rothstein, B. (2008), ‘What Is Quality of Government? A Theory of Impartial Government Institutions’, Governance 21, 165–190.Google Scholar
Tobin, J. (1958), Estimation of Relationships for Limited Dependent Variables. Econometrica 26, 24–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Spanje, J. and Weber, T. (2019), ‘Does ostracism affect party support? Comparative lessons and experimental evidence’, Party Politics 25(6): 745–758, doi: 10.1177/1354068817730722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasilopoulou, S. and Halikiopoulou, D. (2015), The Golden Dawn’s & Nationalist Solution: Explaining the rise of the far right in Greece, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Volkens, A., Krause, W., Lehmann, P., Matthieß, T., Merz, N., Regel, S. and Weßels, B. (2019), The Manifesto Data Collection. Manifesto Project (MRG/CMP/MARPOR). Version 2019b. Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB). https://doi.org/10.25522/manifesto.mpds.2019b CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooldridge, J.M. (2002), Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Vrakopoulos supplementary material

Appendix B

Download Vrakopoulos supplementary material(File)
File 1.6 MB
Supplementary material: File

Vrakopoulos supplementary material

Appendix A

Download Vrakopoulos supplementary material(File)
File 682.7 KB