Classifications

1
Lecture 10

• Classifications
• ?
• Theoretical
• approaches

2
Party families

• Michael Gallagher, Michael Laver and Peter Mair
  (Representative Governments in Western Europe,
  3rd ed., 2001) suggest three ways of dividing
  parties into families
• 1) Genetic origin. Parties formed in historical
  circumstances, or with the intention to represent
  similar interests
• 2) Affiliation to transnational party
  federations, e.g. Socialist International and the
  Liberal International, party groups in the
  European Parliament
• 3) Policies

3
Extreme right parties in European Parliament
until 2006

• Independence and Democracy group
• UKIP, Lega Nord (Together with June Movement DK
  June List Swe Mouvement pour la France, Dutch,
  Polish, Czech, Greek parties 1 ind. from
  Ireland)
• Union for a Europe of Nations Group UEN
• AN Danish People's Party (Together with Fianna
  Fail, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish parties)
• Non-attached members
• FPÖ, FN, Vlaams Belang, MSI-Flame, Alternativa
  Sociale (Mussolini) (Together with DUP, 2 UKIP
  defectors, Austrian, Italian, Czech, Slovak 6
  Polish parties

4
Extreme right parties in European Parliament from
January 2007

• Extreme Right parties form Identity, Tradition
  and Sovereignty group, with 20 members
• Front National 7
• FPÖ 1
• Vlaams Belang 3
• Alternativa Sociale 1 (Alessandra Mussolini)
• MSI-Fiamma Tricolore 1
• UKIP defector (Ashley Mote) 1 (Sep 07 nine months
  in jail for benefit fraud)
• Partidul Romania Mare (Romania) 5 (plus one
  indep. from Romania, who joins in March)
• Attack Coalition (Bulgaria) 1 (plus two following
  EU election in May)
• In November 2007 five Romanian members resigned
  in protest against derogatory statements by
  Alessandra Mussolini. This meant that the group
  fell below the minimum membership level of 20,
  and was dissolved

5
Extreme right parties in European Parliament from
November 2007

• AN, Lega Nord, Danish People's Party
• Union for a Europe of Nations Group (UEN)
• FPÖ, FN, Vlaams Belang, MSI-Fiamma Tricolore,
  Alternativa Sociale (Mussolini), Attack Coalition
  (Bulgaria), Partidul Romania Mare
• Non-attached members

6
So

• as you can see, some extreme right parties are
  not members of any international grouping others
  are members of different groups, indeed some have
  shifted back and forth
• Historical circumstances and the representation
  of social groups may be useful when classifying
  old parties, but newer parties do not have a very
  easily identifiable social base
• and the historical circumstances that led to the
  formation of extreme right parties were similar
  to those that led to the formation of green
  parties
• Policies are also difficult, because it is very
  problematic to compare policies in different
  countries
• Mudde (2000) argues that ideologies are better
  suited to comparison. More general, and more
  stable over time, than policies

7
Thus

• ideology is the best criterion when classifying
  parties
• Following Mudde (1995/2000), an extreme right
  party is nationalist, xenophobic, welfare
  chauvinist and in favour of law and order
• The exact content of the core ideology may not be
  unanimously agreed, and there may be different
  ways of weighting the ideological ingredients,
  but Muddes work has moved the discussion forward

8
But what to call them?

• Mudde (2000) argues that, despite many
  diffculties, the label extreme right is the
  preferred option
• In 2007, however, Mudde retracts this statement,
  preferring Populist Radical Right (although he
  also changes the ideological core, hence the
  definition)
• There are many other suggested labels
• Far right
• Populist right
• Radical right
• etc., often in various combinations, e.g.
  Rydgren Radical Right(-wing) Populist (RRP)

9
Sub-groups

• Mudde (2000)
• Extreme right
• Ethnic nationalist
• State (civic) nationalist
• Ignazi (1992)
• Extreme right
• Old
• New
• Betz (1994)
• Radical Right-Wing Populism
• Neo-liberal/libertarian
• Authoritarian/national

• Kitschelt (1995)
• Extreme Right
• Fascist
• Welfare chauvinist
• Populist anti-statist
• Right-authoritarian New Radical Right
• Taggart (1995)
• Right-Wing Extremism
• New populist
• Neo-fascist

10
Ten Theories (Eatwell 2002)

• Demand-side 1
• Single issue (immigration)
• Extreme right parties success depends one single
  factor reactions against immigration

11
Ten Theories (Eatwell 2002)

• Demand-side 2
• Protest
• Extreme right parties success is not dependent
  on any issue or attitudes just resentment
  against the political establishment

12
Ten Theories (Eatwell 2002)

• Demand-side 3
• Social breakdown
• Traditional social structures, especially class
  and religion, are breaking down. As a result,
  individuals lose a sense of belonging and turn to
  ethnic nationalism, which gives a renewed sense
  of self-esteem.

13
Ten Theories (Eatwell 2002)

• Demand-side 4
• Reverse post-materialism
• Post-materialism (Inglehart). New values in
  post-war affluent generation
• Extreme right parties success is caused by a
  backlash against post-materialism
  environmentalism, cosmopolitanism, new left
  politics, feminism et c.

14
Ten Theories (Eatwell 2002)

• Demand-side 5
• Economic self-interest
• Extreme right support comes from the losers in
  a competition over scarce resources, or those who
  fear they may lose out

15
Ten Theories (Eatwell 2002)

• Supply-side 1
• Opportunity structures (Kitschelt)
• Extreme right parties success depends on
• Electoral systems
• Convergence between mainstream left
  and right

16
Ten Theories (Eatwell 2002)

• Supply-side 2
• Medialisation
• The media promote certain national stereotypes,
  which fit the extreme right agenda. Highlight
  bogus asylum seekers, et c.

17
Ten Theories (Eatwell 2002)

• Supply-side 3
• National traditions
• Extreme right is successful when it can portray
  itself as part of a national tradition. Fascist
  or extremist links will limit their support

18
Ten Theories (Eatwell 2002)

• Supply-side 4
• Party programmes
• Politics is becoming more issue-based, which
  suits the extreme right
• Extreme right has adopted a Winning formula of
  anti-immigration and pro-capitalism (Kitschelt)

19
Ten Theories (Eatwell 2002)

• Supply-side 5
• Charismatic leadership
• Many extreme right parties have charismatic
  leaders, who are believed to be key factors
  behind their success

20
To sum up

• Demand-side
• Single issue
• Protest
• Social breakdown
• Reverse post-materialism
• Economic self-interest

• Supply-side
• Opportunity structures
• Medialisation
• National traditions
• Party programmes
• Charismatic leadership

21
Herbert Kitschelt (1995)

• New conflict structures
• Economic
• libertarian/free market
• v
• socialist/redistributive
• Societal/political
• authoritarian
• v
• libertarian/permissive
• Conceptions of citizenship
• particularist
• v
• cosmopolitan

22
Kitschelt (cont.)

• Contemporary postindustrial democracies have
  created a limited but distinctive demand for a
  combination of
• ethnocentric
• authoritarian
• and
• free market politics

23
Kitschelt (cont.)

• Orientation to citizenship (universalistic/cosmopo
  litan v. particularistic/parochial)
• and
• modes of collective decision-making
  (egalitarian/democratic v. hierarchical/authoritar
  ian)
• are shaped by communicative experiences and
  capabilities

24
Kitschelt (cont.)

• Symbol- and client-processing experiences lead to
  values conducive to New Left attitudes
• Experiences of manipulations of objects,
  documents or spreadsheets lead to values
  conducive to New Radical Right attitudes

25
Kitschelt (cont.)

• Extreme right success depends on two main sets of
  factors
• Opportunity structures (electoral system,
  convergence between mainstream left and
  right)
• Winning formula (authoritarianism/
  anti-immigration and market
  liberalism/pro-capitalism)

26
Hans-Georg Betz (1994)

• The transformation from industrial to
  post-industrial capitalism has brought profound
  economic, social and societal changes
• Established subcultures, milieus and
  institutions, which traditionally provided and
  sustained collective identities, are getting
  eroded and/or destroyed
• This has given way to a flux of contextualised
  identities

27
Betz (cont.)

• The breakdown of established subcultures,
  milieus and institutions has led to
• A break-up of traditional political loyalties
• and
• A sense of being left behind

28
Eatwells LET approach

• Legitimacy
• Efficacy
• Trust
• Increasing L(egitimacy) of extreme right parties
  and E(fficacy) of voters, combined with declining
  T(rust) in the political system promotes extreme
  right support