What is rightwing populism

1
What is right-wing populism?

• Sigrid Saveljeff
• IMER 21-40, fall 2006
• Lecture 1

2
The lectures

• Lecture 1 What is right-wing populism?
• Lecture 2 Right-wing populism, neonationalism
  and neoracism
• Lecture 3 Right-wing populism in a Swedish
  context

3
The lecture of today

• Definitions
• The development of populism the first, second
  and third wave
• The ideology of right-wing populism
• Factors contributing to the development of
  right-wing populism
• The organisation of the right-wing populist party
  and its electoral base

4
Right-wing populism a concept difficult to
define

• Populism is an unusual concept. Populist
  movements have systems of belief which are
  diffuse they are inherently difficult to control
  and organize they lack consistency and their
  activity waxes and wanes with a bewildering
  frequency. Populism is a difficult, slippery
  concept. (Taggart, 2000)

5
The development of populism the first, second
and third wave

• The first wave (ca 1850-1900) Russian and
  American populism
• The second wave (1960- ) left- and
  centerpopulism
• The third wave (1990- ) right-wing populism

6
The third wave right-wing populist parties
dominates the populist discourse

• Differences compared to previous populist
  expressions
• - A syncronic development
• - More influence on the political agenda
• - Successful in winning important political
  positions

7
The third wave right-wing populist parties
dominates the populist discourse

• Critic against immigration policies and the
  development of a multicultural society
• The development of an authoritarian social system
  where the rights of the individual is based
  exclusively upon ethnic, racial or religious
  belonging
• Important to be perceived as democratic parties

8
The ideology of right-wing populism

• The people
• The heartland
• Welfare chauvinism on an ethno-national base
• Discontent among the people
• Critic against representative democracy
• The dynamic form of right-wing populism
• Xenophobia

9
The people

• Paul Taggart
• - connection between the people and the
  heartland
• - an idealized picture of the people
• - the idea of an integrated and homogenous
  society

10
The people

• Right-wing populist parties state that they
  represent the ordinary people
• The people are embodying certain virtues, values
  and norms
• Right-wing populist parties claim to speak on
  behalf of the silent majority

11
The argumentation of right-wing populist parties
in relation to the people

• Appeal to the common sense of the people
• Simple solutions to complex problems
• Critic against the political establishment they
  havent listened to the people

12
Three ways of using the concept of the people

• The ordinary people
• Our people
• The united people

13
The heartland

• Historically idealized picture of the nation
• Values and norms derive from the common sense of
  the people
• Exclusion of the extreme and the marginalized
• The goal is to reconstruct the heartland

14
The heartland

• The population of the heartland should be
  homogenous
• Exclusion of individuals that dont have
  historical ties to the heartland
• Paul Taggart
• Those who did not belong to the people of the
  heartland of the past, do not belong to the
  people of today.

15
Welfare chauvinism on an ethno-national base

• Dichotomy between sustaining and consuming social
  groups
• Sustaining groups contribute to the welfare
  state
• Consuming groups use the welfare system without
  contributing to the system
• Consuming groups are not included in the people
• Consuming groups intellectuals, unemployed,
  bureaucrats, immigrants

16
Discontent among the people

• Critic against the ruling elite
• The elite is the winners, the people the losers
• The elite have neglected political issues
  important to the people

17
Critic against the representative democracy

• Complicated relationship to the representative
  democracy
• The people have too little political power and
  influence in relation to the political elite
• Advocate a more frequent use of direct democracy,
  such as referendums

18
Critic against representative democracy

• Creates a dilemma for right-wing populist
  parties
• - right-wing populist parties create their
  rhetoric around a critic against the political
  establishment and the efficiency of
  representative democracy
• - on the other hand, right-wing populist parties
  can only gain political influence within the
  institutions of representative democracy and end
  up becoming a part of the political establishment

19
The dynamic form of right-wing populism

• Paul Taggart a chameleonic quality
• Ability to change form and content due to the
  surrounding context

20
Xenophobia

• The use of xenophobic attitudes is a trademark
  for right-wing populist parties of today
• Membership to a nation should be built upon
  excluding criterias
• Immigrants are seen as scapegoats and are blamed
  for all problems that can appear within the
  postindustrial society

21
Factors contributing to the development of
right-wing populist parties

• Resurrection of neo fascism and neo nazism
• Greater interference from the state in peoples
  lives
• The decline of the post war consensus
• Transformation from an industrial to a
  post-industrial society
• Lost confidence for the political establishment
  and the political institutions
• Convergence in political space
• New issues on the political agenda
• The historical and ideological baggage

22
Factors contributing to the development of
right-wing populist parties

• Resurrection of neo fascism and neo nazism as a
  reaction against the economic recession and high
  unemployment rates in most west European
  countries since the oil crises during the 1970s
• Greater interference from the state in peoples
  lives due to changes which gives the state more
  power and influence
• The decline of the post war consensus entailed
  political instability

23
Transformation from an industrial to a
post-industrial society

• The transformation has led to new social
  cleavages, the loss of power for the working
  class movement and to a reorganisation of the
  economy in the nation
• After the oil crises in the middle of the 1970s,
  major social cleavages emerged and the
  unemployment rates became higher and higher

24
Transformation from an industrial to a
post-industrial society

• The transformation from an industrial mass
  production to a flexibel on demand production in
  the middle of the 1970s
• The industry changed from labour intensive to
  capital intensive with an economy which focused
  on the service sector

25
Transformation from an industrial to a
post-industrial society

• The transformation led to high unemployment rates
  among those previously employed in the industries
• The losers of modernisation
• Right-wing populist parties claim to speak on
  behalf of these losers of modernisation in
  order to restore their dignity

26
Lost confidence for the political establishment
and the political institutions

• The established political parties havent been
  able to handle the effects of the dramatic
  economical and cultural changes that have occured
  since the 1970s
• Ordinary people lost confidence in politicians
  and the political structures
• Opened up for right-wing populist parties which
  advocated simple solutions to complex problems

27
Lost confidence for the political establishment
and the political institutions

• Established political parties use two strategies
  in order to regain the confidence of the voters
• - to adopt the same political issues driven by
  the right-wing populist parties (Denmark)
• - to isolate and marginalize right-wing populist
  parties, cordon sanitaire (Sweden)

28
Convergence in political space

• Convergence the voter feel that there exist no
  ideological differences between the established
  political parties
• A high degree of convergence may fuel the popular
  distrust in politicians and the political
  parties, and create an audience receptive to
  right-wing populism

29
New issues on the political agenda

• New political issues emerged on the political
  agenda during the 1980s
• Right-wing populist parties started to criticize
  the immigration policies
• Today, focus is on a critic against the
  development of a multicultural society

30
New issues on the political agenda

• The immigration issue and the critic against the
  multicultural society have proven to be an ideal
  question for right-wing populist parties to focus
  on, since immigration is used as an explanation
  to the problems of the modern society, such as
  unemployment, violence and high taxes

31
Historical and ideological baggage

• To be able to establish a solid base among the
  electorate, a right-wing populist party should
  not have any relations with anti-democratic
  movements
• The Sweden Democrats have not been able to get
  rid of their old connections
• Alleanza Nazionale have managed to get rid of
  their historical ties to fascism and are now
  perceived as a conservative party within the
  mainstream right

32
The organization of a right-wing populist party

• Right-wing populist parties emerge very quickly
  and are flexible when it comes to their
  organization
• This kind of flexibility is hard to maintain over
  time
• Right-wing populist parties are quite reluctant
  towards creating sustainable structures
• The organizational dilemma of right-wing populist
  parties it is hard to establish a political
  party without creating institutions and
  structures that will maintain stability within
  the party

33
The organization of the right-wing populist party

• One way of handling this dilemma is to advocate
  an extended use of direct democracy
• Due to their way of organizing themselves,
  right-wing populist parties perceive themselves
  as a new political alternative
• A charismatic leader is quite common within
  right-wing populist parties
• The charismatic leadership is meant to replace
  the need for rigid institutions and structures
  within the party

34
The organization of the right-wing populist party

• The advantages and disadvantages with a
  charismatic leadership
• Advantage The centralisation of the leadership
  facilitate for the party to act fast without
  having to deal with time-consuming internal
  debates
• Disadvantage A charismatic leadership is
  strongly connected to a certain individual who
  cant easily be replaced

35
The electoral base of the right-wing populist
party

• The voter a younger man without higher
  education, working within the industrial sector,
  living in a city
• Right-wing populist parties are not traditional
  working class parties
• Right-wing populist parties have a tendency to
  attract voters from all over the political
  spectra
• Blue-collar workers are overrepresented

36
The electoral base of the right-wing populist
party

• In comparison to other voters within the
  political spectra, the right-wing populist voter
  is
• more afraid of unemployment
• more pessimistic about the future
• more afraid of violence and criminality
• more sceptic towards the system of representative
  democracy

37
The electoral base of the right-wing populist
party

• Men and younger people are more likely to cast
  their vote on a right-wing populist party.
• This can be explained by the different positions
  on the labour market for men and women, and for a
  weak party-identification among younger voters
• Right-wing populist parties attract voters who
  normally dont participate in national elections