|
Malmö University Electronic Publishing >
University Publications >
MIM Publication Series >
Willy Brandt Series of Working Papers >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2043/6127
|
| Title: | The Populist Radical Right: A Pathological Normalcy |
| Authors: | Mudde, Cas |
| Editor: | Bevelander, Pieter |
| Date of Issue: | 2008 |
| Language: | eng |
| Keywords: | populism
radical right
political ideology
democracy |
| SCB/VR subject: | Research Subject Categories::INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AREAS::Ethnicity |
| Publication type: | Article, other scientific |
| Host publication/No.: | Willy Brandt Series of Working Papers in International Migration and Ethnic Relations
3/07 |
| Pages/Page numbers/Volume: | 24 p. |
| Publisher: | Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM) and Department of International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER), Malmö University |
| Abstract: | In recent years more and more studies have pointed to the limitations of
demand-side explanations of the electoral success of populist radical right
parties. They argue that supply-side factors need to be included as well. While
previous authors have made these claims on the basis of purely empirical
arguments, this paper provides a (meta)theoretical argumentation for the
importance of supply-side explanations. It takes issue with the dominant view
on the populist radical right, which considers it to be alien to mainstream
values in contemporary western democracies, expressed most explicitly in
the “normal pathology thesis”. Instead, it argues that the populist radical
right should be seen as a radical interpretation of mainstream values, or, to
stay in Scheuch and Klingemann’s terminology, as a pathological normalcy.
This argument is substantiated on the basis of an empirical analysis of party
ideologies and mass attitudes. The proposed paradigmatic shift has profound
consequences for the way the populist radical right and western democracy
relate, as well as on how the populist radical right is best studied. Most
importantly, it makes demand for populist radical right politics an assumption
rather than a puzzle, and turns the prime focus of research on the political
struggle over issue saliency and positions, and on the role of populist radical
right parties within these struggles. |
| ISSN: | 1650-5743 |
| Appears in Collections: | Willy Brandt Series of Working Papers
|
Files in This Item:
| File |
Description |
Size | Format |
|---|
| WB 3_07 MUEP.pdf | | 232Kb | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
|
All items in MUEP are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved.
|
