The Extreme Right in Western Europe Success or Failure?

by Carter, Elisabeth

• ISBN13: 9780719070488
• ISBN10: 0719070481
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-07
• Publisher: MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS

Summary

This book examines the reasons behind the variation in the electoral fortunes of the West European parties of the extreme Right in the period since the late 1970s. It proposes a number of different explanations as to why certain parties of the extreme Right have performed better than others at the polls and it investigates each of these different explanations systematically and in depth.

Author Biography

Elisabeth Carter is a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Politics, International Relations and the Environment at Keele University.

Table of Contents

List of tables and figures	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
Abbreviations: right-wing extremist parties	xiii
1 The varying electoral fortunes of the West European parties of the extreme right	1	(12)
Accounting for variation in the extreme right party vote	2	(6)
Right-wing extremist parties in Western Europe since 1979	8	(2)
Four explanations for the variation in the right-wing extremist party vote	10	(3)
2 Party ideology	13	(51)
The concept of right-wing extremism	14	(6)
Terminology	20	(4)
The study of right-wing extremist party ideology: existing typologies and their limitations	24	(4)
An alternative typology of right-wing extremist parties	28	(22)
Importance attached to the issue of immigration	29	(6)
Racist attitudes	35	(6)
Attitudes towards democracy, parliamentarism and pluralism	41	(9)
Five types of right-wing extremist party	50	(4)
Right-wing extremist party ideology and electoral success	54	(6)
Concluding remarks	60	(4)
3 Party organization and leadership	64	(38)
The influence of party organization and party leadership	64	(2)
Organization, leadership and factionalism: three types of right-wing extremist party	66	(25)
Weakly organized, poorly led and divided parties	66	(11)
Weakly organized, poorly led but united parties	77	(3)
Strongly organized, well-led but factionalized parties	80	(11)
Party organization, party leadership and the right-wing extremist party vote	91	(7)
Concluding remarks	98	(4)
4 Party competition	102	(44)
The concept of political space and the space of party competition	103	(2)
Mapping the political space and estimating party positions: five approaches	105	(7)
Government expenditure flows	105	(1)
Elite studies	106	(1)
Voter attitudes	107	(2)
Internal analysis of party election programmes	109	(2)
Expert judgements	111	(1)
Data and methodology	112	(2)
Patterns of party competition: the mainstream right and the right-wing extremist party vote	114	(11)
Patterns of party competition: the extreme right and the right-wing extremist party vote	125	(4)
Patterns of party competition: the interaction of the mainstream right and the extreme right, and the right-wing extremist party vote	129	(7)
Patterns of party competition: convergence of the mainstream parties	136	(5)
Concluding remarks	141	(5)
5 The institutional environment	146	(55)
Electoral systems	147	(15)
District magnitude and legal thresholds	148	(7)
Electoral formulae	155	(5)
The overall mechanical effect of electoral systems: measuring disproportionality	160	(2)
Other electoral laws	162	(33)
Party/candidate access to the electoral process	163	(5)
Access to the broadcast media	168	(8)
Access to state subventions	176	(16)
Ballot access, media access and state subvention rules: the overall impact of other electoral laws	192	(3)
Concluding remarks	195	(6)
6 Accounting for varying electoral fortunes	201	(15)
Explanations for the variation in the right-wing extremist party vote: the story so far	201	(4)
Explanations for the variation in the right-wing extremist party vote: putting the pieces together	205	(7)
Concluding remarks	212	(4)
Appendix A: The ideological positions of West European political parties	216	(11)
Appendix B: The political space in the different countries of Western Europe	227	(6)
Appendix C: The disproportionality of elections, 1979-2003	233	(3)
Bibliography	236	(25)
Index	261