Conference: 24th World Congress of Political Science
Panel: The Impact of Far Right Parties on European Democracies
Location and date: Istanbul, 23-28 July 2016
Chair: Steven M. Van Hauwaert (UCLouvain)
Co-chair: Sarah de Lange (University of Amsterdam)
For further details: Conference website
Abstract: In the past three decades, far right parties have emerged throughout Europe. Given their electoral success and government participation, they can be considered the most successful party family to breakthrough in the post-Rokkanian era. Many politicians, policy makers, journalists and commentators see this as a dangerous evolution and often perceive the presence of these parties as a challenge or even threat to European democracies. At the same, political science studies show us that presence does not equal influence. Far right parties may or may not exercise direct and/or indirect influence, for example on the party system, policy making and the quality of democracy, depending on a variety structural and contextual factors. Therefore, this panel proposes to theorise and empirically analyse to what extent and alongside which dimensions far right parties influence different aspects of politics. Can we speak of ‘Verrechtsing’ or ‘contagion of the (far) right, and if so, is this directly caused by the emergence of far right parties? To what extent do far right parties influence the issue positions of other parties (e.g. on the economy, the EU, immigration, law and order) and policy outcomes? To what extent do far right parties have an impact on party and political systems? And under which conditions does this impact manifest itself, either directly or indirectly? We especially welcome papers that have a comparative angle, either based on qualitative, quantitative or mixed method.
Interested participations are invited to submit their abstracts to Steven M. Van Hauwaert (steven.vanhauwaert@uclouvain.be) and Sarah de Lange (s.l.delange@uva.nl)
