Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T08:38:10.511Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reviewing the relationship between social policy and the contemporary populist radical right: welfare chauvinism, welfare nation state and social citizenship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Markus Ketola Open the ORCID record for Markus Ketola [Opens in a new window]  and
Johan Nordensvard Open the ORCID record for Johan Nordensvard [Opens in a new window]
Markus Ketola*
Affiliation:
School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences, Ulster University, Coleraine, UK
Johan Nordensvard
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Stockholm, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, Stockholm, Sweden
*
CONTACT Markus Ketola [email protected] Ulster University, School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences, Cromore Road, Coleraine BT52 1SA, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Whilst populism has a long-standing relationship with social policy, the recent emergence of radical right populism as a considerable political force across Europe and beyond compels us to think further about this relationship. The aim of this review essay is to bring together literature on populism, welfare chauvinism and social citizenship in order to highlight the role social policy plays in the rhetoric and political approach of the populist radical right. This essay reviews, how, by developing artificial distinctions between culturally homogeneous ‘people’ and corrupt ‘elite’, the populist radical right generates interpretations of social citizenship that confers social rights based on of cultural or ethnic belonging, rather than as a matter of right. By simplifying the nature of complex social policy problems, radical right populism further problematises the mainstream social policy agenda. Consequently, radical right populism will continue to present a significant challenge to progressive and inclusive social policy.

Keywords

Populismwelfare chauvinismsocial citizenshipsocial policy
Type
Review Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 34 , Issue 3: SI: Social Policy and Populism: welfare chauvinism and identity politics in a Europe on the brink of Brexit , October 2018 , pp. 172 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

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

Alesina, A., & Glaeser, E. (2004). Fighting poverty in the US and Europe: A world of difference. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, J. G., & Bjørklund, T. (1990). Structural changes and new cleavages: The progress parties in Denmark and Norway. Acta Sociologica, 33(2), 195–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, B. R. O. (1983). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Aslanidis, P. (2016). Is populism an ideology? A refutation and a new perspective. Political Studies, 64(1_suppl), 88–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banting, K. (2005). Canada: National-building in a federal welfare state. In Obinger, H., Leibfried, S., & Castles, F. G. (Eds.), Federalism and the welfare state: New world and European experiences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barnett, N. (2016). Local government, new labour and ‘active welfare’: A case of ‘self responsibilisation’? Public Policy and Administration, 18(3), 25–38. doi:10.1177/095207670301800303CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Béland, D., & Lecours, D. (2005). The politics of territorial solidarity: Nationalism and social policy reform in Canada, the United Kingdom and Belgium. Comparative Political Studies, 38(6), 676–703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Béland, D., & Lecours, D. (2008). Nationalism and social policy: The politics of territorial solidarity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berezin, M. (2009). Illiberal politics in neoliberal times: Culture, security and populism in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berezin, M. (2013). The normalization of the right in post-security Europe. In Schafer, A., & Streeck, W. (Eds.), Politics in the Age of austerity (pp. 239–261). Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Betz, HG. (2001). Exclusionary populism in Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Canada's Journal of Global Policy Analysis, 56(3), 393–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betz, H.-J. (1994). Radical right wing populism in Western Europe. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betz, H., & Johnson, C. (2004). Against the current—stemming the tide: The nostalgic ideology of the contemporary radical populist right. Journal of Political Ideologies, 9(3), 311–327. doi: 10.1080/1356931042000263546CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blyth, M. (2002). Great transformations: Economic ideas and institutional change in the twentieth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boychuk, G. (2008). National health insurance in the United States and Canada: Race, territory, and the roots of difference. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, W. R. (1992). Citizenship and nationhood in France and Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bustikova, L. (2014). Revenge of the radical right. Comparative Political Studies, 47(12), 1738–1765. doi:10.1177/0010414013516069CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canovan, M. (2016). Trust the people! Populism and the two faces of democracy. Political Studies, 47(1), 2–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, E., & Bana, Aimee. (2005). The extreme right in Western Europe: Success or failure?. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
de Koster, W., Achterberg, P., & van der Waal, J. (2013). The new right and the welfare state: The electoral relevance of welfare chauvinism and welfare populism in the Netherlands. International Political Science Review, 34(1), 3–20. doi: 10.1177/0192512112455443CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delanty, G. (1997). Models of citizenship: Defining European identity and citizenship. Citizenship Studies, 1(3), 285–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ennser-Jedenastik, L. (2018). Welfare chauvinism in populist radical right platforms: The role of redistributive justice principles. Social Policy & Administration, 52(1), 293–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Evans, J., Arzheimer, K., Baldini, G., Bjorklund, T., & Carter, E. (2001). Comparative mapping of extreme right electoral dynamics: An overview of EREPS. European Political Science, 1(1), 42–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faist, T. (1994). Immigration, integration, and the ethnicization of politics. European Journal of Political Research, 25(4), 439–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fekete, L. (2018). ‘Europe's fault lines: Racism and the rise of the right. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Freeden, M. (1998). Is nationalism a distinct ideology? Political Studies, 46(4), 748–765.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeden, M. (2018). After the brexit referendum: Revisiting populism as an ideology. Journal of Political Ideologies, 22(1), 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, V., & Wilding, P. (2002). Globalization and human welfare. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerdes, C. (2011). The impact of immigration on the size of government: empirical evidence from Danish municipalities. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 113(1), 74–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, R. (2000). Interregnum or endgame? The radical right in the ‘post-fascist’ era. Journal of Political Ideologies, 5(2), 163–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hainsworth, P. (2008). The extreme right in Europe. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hettne, B. (2000). The fate of citizenship in post-westphalia. Citizenship Studies, 4(1), 35–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hjerm, M., & Schnabel, A. (2012). How much heterogeneity can the welfare state endure? The influence of heterogeneity on attitudes to the welfare state. Nations and Nationalism, 18(2), 346–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, J. H. (1995). Hidden order: How adaptation builds complexity, basic books. New York: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Holston, J., & Appadurai, A. (1996). Cities and citizenship. Public Culture, 8(2), 187–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isin, E. F., & Turner, B. S. (2002). Citizenship studies: An introduction. In Isin, E. F., & Turner, B. S. (Eds.), Handbook of citizenship studies. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Katsambekis, G., & Stavrakakis, Y. (2017). Revisiting the nationalism/populism Nexus: Lessons from the Greek case. Javnost, 24(4), 391–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ketola, M., & Nordensvard, J. O. (2018). Social policy and populism: Welfare nationalism as the new narrative of social citizenship. In Needham, Catherine, Heins, Elke & Rees, James (Eds.), Social policy review 30 (pp. 161–181). Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, H., & McGann, A. J. (1995). The radical right in Western Europe: A comparative analysis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Kpessa, M., Béland, D., & Lecours, A. (2011). social policy: The politics of nation-building in sub-Saharan Africa. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34(12), 2115–2133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriesi, H. (2014). The populist challenge. West European Politics, 37(2), 361–378. doi: 10.1080/01402382.2014.887879CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kymlicka, W. (1995). Multicultural citizenship: A liberal theory of minority rights. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Laclau, E. (1977). Politics and ideology in Marxist theory: Capitalism, fascism, populism. London: NLB.Google Scholar
Laclau, E. (2005). On populist reason. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Linklater, A. (1998). Cosmopolitan citizenship. Citizenship Studies, 2(1), 23–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loorbach, D. (2007). Transition management: New mode of governance for sustainable development. Utrecht: International Books.Google Scholar
Marshall, T. H. (1950). Citizenship and social class and other essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mau, S., & Burkhardt, C. (2009). Migration and welfare state solidarity in Western Europe. Journal of European Social Policy, 19(3), 213–229. doi: 10.1177/0958928709104737CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McEwen, N. (2006). Nationalism and the state: Welfare and identity in Scotland and Quebec. Brussels: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Mény, Y., & Surel, Y. (2002). Democracies and the populist challenge. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mewes, J., & Mau, S. (2013). Globalization, socio-economic status and welfare chauvinism: European perspectives on attitudes toward the exclusion of immigrants. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 54(3), 228–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, B. (2015). How to perform crisis: A model for understanding the key role of crisis in contemporary populism. Government and Opposition, 50(2), 189–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C. (2004). The populist zeitgeist. Government and Opposition, 39(4), 542–563. doi:10.1111/j.1477-7053.2004.00135.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C. (2007). Populist radical right parties in Europe. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C. (2010). The populist radical right: A pathological normalcy. West European Politics, 33(6), 1167–1186. doi: 10.1080/01402382.2010.508901CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C., & Kaltwasser, C. R. (2013). Exclusionary vs. inclusionary populism: Comparing contemporary Europe and Latin America. Government and Opposition, 48(2), doi: 10.1017/gov.2012.11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller, J.-W. (2016). What is populism?. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nordensvard, J., & Ketola, M. (2015). Nationalist reframing of the Finnish and Swedish welfare states – The nexus of nationalism and social policy in Far-right populist parties. Social Policy & Administration, 49(3), 356–375. doi: 10.1111/spol.12095CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norocel, O. C. (2016). Populist radical right protectors of the Folkhem: Welfare chauvinism in Sweden. Critical Social Policy, 36(3), 321–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Otjes, S., Ivaldi, G., Jupskås, A. R., & Mazzoleni, O. (2018). It's not economic interventionism, stupid! reassessing the political economy of radical right-wing populist parties. Swiss Political Science Review, forthcoming, 1–21.Google Scholar
Petersen, O. H., & Hjelmar, U. (2013). Marketization of welfare services in Scandinavia: A review of Swedish and Danish experiences. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, 17(4), 3–20.Google Scholar
Purcell, M. (2003). Citizenship and the right to the global city: Reimagining the capitalist world order. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27(3), 564–590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, R. D., Leonardi, R., & Nanetti, R. (1993). Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Reeskens, T., & van Oorschot, W. (2012). Disentangling the ‘New liberal dilemma’: On the relation between general welfare redistribution preferences and welfare chauvinism. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 53(2), 120–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rittel, H. W. J., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rooduijn, M. (2014). The nucleus of populism: In search of the lowest common denominator. Government and Opposition, 49(4), 573–599. doi: 10.1017/gov.2013.30CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Room, G. (2011). Complexity, institutions and public policy: Agile decision-making in a turbulent world. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothstein, B., & Stolle, D. (2003). Social capital, impartiality and the welfare state: An institutional approach. In Hooghe, M., & Stolle, D. (Eds.), Generating social capital (pp. 191–210). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothstein, B., & Uslaner, E. M. (2005). All for one: Equality, corruption, and social trust. World Politics, 58(1), 41–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rydgren, J. (2005). Radical right-wing populism in Sweden and Denmark. Beer Sheva: The Centre for the Study of European Politics and Society.Google Scholar
Rydgren, J. (2007). The sociology of the radical right. Annual Review of Sociology, 33(1), 241–262. doi: 10.1146/annurev.soc.33.040406.131752CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sainsbury, D. (2006). Immigrants’ social rights in comparative perspective: Welfare regimes, forms in immigration and immigration policy regimes. Journal of European Social Policy, 16(3), 229–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salamon, L. M. (1993). The marketization of welfare: Changing nonprofit and for-profit roles in the American welfare state. Social Service Review, 67(1), 16–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schierup, C.-U., Hansen, P., & Castles, S. (2006). Migration, citizenship and the European welfare state – A European dilemma. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sverigedemokraterna.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schumacher, G., & van Kersbergen, K. (2014). Do mainstream parties adapt to the welfare chauvinism of populist parties? Party Politics, 22(3), 300–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, R. M. (2002). Modern citizenship. In Isin, E. F., & Turner, B. S. (Eds.), Handbook of citizenship studies. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Soysal, L. (2009). Introduction: Triumph of culture, troubles of anthropology. Focaal, 55, 3–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spinney, A., & Nethery, A. (2013). “Taking our houses”: perceptions of the impact of asylum seekers, refugees and new migrants on housing assistance in Melbourne. Social Policy and Society, 12(2), 179–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, B. (2008). The thin ideology of populism. Journal of Political Ideologies, 13(1), 95–110. doi:10.1080/13569310701822289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szczerbiak, A., & Taggart, P. A. (2008). Opposing Europe? The comparative party politics of Euroscepticism (Vol. 1). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Taggart, P. (1998). A touchstone of dissent: Euroscepticism in contemporary Western European party systems. European Journal of Political Research, 33(3), 363–388. doi:10.1023/a:1006853204101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taguieff, P. A. (1988). La Force du pŕejuǵe. Essai sur le racisme et ses doubles. Paris: La D´ecouverte.Google Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2005). Is the future American? Can left politics preserve European welfare states from erosion through growing racial’ diversity. Journal of Social Policy, 34(4), 661–672.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thörn, H., & Larsson, B. (2012). Conclusions: Re-engineering the Swedish welfare state. In Larsson, B., Letell, M., & Thörn, H. (Eds.), Transformations of the Swedish welfare state: From social engineering to governance? (pp. 262–282). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Usherwood, S., & Startin, N. (2013). Euroscepticism as a persistent phenomenon. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 51(1), 1–16. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5965.2012.02297.x.Google Scholar
Van Der Waal, J., De Koster, W., & Van Oorschot, W. (2013). Three worlds of welfare chauvinism? How welfare regimes affect support for distributing welfare to immigrants in Europe. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 15(2), 164–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, A. (2004). Redefining citizenship for the 21st century: From the national welfare state to the UN global compact. International Journal of Social Welfare, 13, 278–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wodak, R., KhosraviNik, M., & Mral, B. (2013). Right-Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse: Amazon.co.uk:: 9781780932453: Books. (R. Wodak, M. KhosraviNik, & B. Mral, Eds.) London: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Right-Wing-Populism-Europe-Politics-Discourse/dp/1780932456Google Scholar
Yilmaz, F. (2012). Right-wing hegemony and immigration: How the populist far-right achieved hegemony through the immigration debate in Europe. Current Sociology, 60(3), 368–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar