Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Concepts
- Part II Issues
- Part III Explanations
- 9 Demand-side: in search of the perfect breeding ground
- 10 External supply-side: political opportunity structures
- 11 Internal supply-side: the populist radical right party
- 12 Assessing impact: populist radical right parties vs. European democracies
- 13 Conclusions
- Appendix A Populist radical right parties
- Appendix B Questionnaire
- Bibliography
- Index
12 - Assessing impact: populist radical right parties vs. European democracies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Concepts
- Part II Issues
- Part III Explanations
- 9 Demand-side: in search of the perfect breeding ground
- 10 External supply-side: political opportunity structures
- 11 Internal supply-side: the populist radical right party
- 12 Assessing impact: populist radical right parties vs. European democracies
- 13 Conclusions
- Appendix A Populist radical right parties
- Appendix B Questionnaire
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Minor parties that succeeded in passing the threshold of representation, even though they are electorally weak, function in various ways … They challenge either the ideological and symbolic aspects of the system or its rules of the game … Because of the ways they bypass obstacles, they are also initiators of new patterns of political competition. As such, they are relevant to the political system and to its understanding.
(Herzog 1987: 326)On the surface nothing trembled, no walls collapsed, even the windows remained intact, but the earth moved in the depths.
(Epstein 1996: 20)Introduction
Both inside and outside of the academic community, scores of claims are made about the political impact of the populist radical right party family on European democracies. According to various commentators populist radical right parties “poison the political atmosphere” (PER 2002: 11). While much speculation abounds about the alleged impact of populist radical right parties on European democracies, few commentators have addressed the other side of the coin, i.e. the impact of European democracies on populist radical right parties.
This chapter discusses the crucial issue of political impact, largely on the basis of the insights of the few academic studies on the topic published so far. The focus is on the impact both of populist radical right parties on European democracies and of European democracies on populist radical right parties.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe , pp. 277 - 292Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007