Abstract
Whether right-wing populist parties pose a threat or a corrective for democracies has been a matter of extensive theoretical debate. This chapter examines the effect these parties exert on democratic quality by means of a comparative quantitative analysis. Focusing on democracies in Western and Eastern Europe, it takes a closer look at democracy’s partial regimes, such as the rule of law, representation, the public sphere, and participation. The results are twofold: First, in line with the theoretical expectations, right-wing populists have a negative effect on democratic quality when they are in government. Second, indirect effects caused by populists’ electoral successes are rare. While the presence of populists enhances participation and aspects of representation, they have a negative influence on the public sphere.
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Notes
- 1.
For a recent argument to the contrary, see Aslanidis (2016).
- 2.
For the effect of populist radical right parties on socioeconomic issues, see Röth et al. (2017).
- 3.
- 4.
Due to missing values, Romania before 1995, Croatia before 2000, and Cyprus had to be excluded from the analysis.
- 5.
Cabinets, which were still in office at the end of 2014, were not included in the analysis to ensure case comparability, as we include government duration in the model.
- 6.
The starting year for Hungary is 1990; for Bulgaria and Poland 1991; for Estonia, Lithuania, and Romania 1992; and for the Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovenia, and Slovakia 1993.
- 7.
The appendix includes a complete list of parties coded as right-wing populist. Please note that the Croatian HDZ is coded only until 2000 as right-wing populist.
- 8.
For a more detailed description of the Democracy Barometer, see also Heyne in this volume.
- 9.
In model 1 we only distinguish between no government involvement and any form of involvement, whereas in model 2 we combine minor party in government and government leadership in order to explain the additional explanatory power of a more distinct measurement.
- 10.
Nevertheless, we have computed all models with the vote share data available and did not observe differences in terms of significant effects.
- 11.
All empirical analysis in this paper has been conducted with the statistical software environment R. The syntax used and a prepared dataset are available upon request.
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Appendix
Appendix
Right-wing populist parties
Country | Initials | Party name | Years included (first and last election results recognized) |
|---|---|---|---|
Austria | FPÖ | Freedom Party of Austria | 1990–2013 |
BZÖ | Alliance for the Future of Austria | 2006–2013 | |
Belgium | VB | Flemish Interest | 1991–2014 |
FN/NF | National Front | 1991–2010 | |
Bulgaria | Ataka | Attack Coalition | 2005–2014 |
Croatia | HDZ | Croatian Democratic Union | 1990–2000 |
HSP | Croatian Party of Rights | 1992–1995 | |
HSP/ZDS | Croatian Party of Rights/Zagorje Democratic Party | 2003 | |
HSP AS | Croatian Party of Rights Dr. Ante Starcevic | 2011 | |
Czech Republic | SPR-RSC | Rally for the Republic – Republican Party of Czechoslovakia | 1992–2010 |
Úsvit | Dawn of Direct Democracy | 2013 | |
Denmark | DF | Danish People’s Party | 1998–2011 |
Estonia | ERSP | Estonian National Independence Party | 1992 |
EK | Estonian Citizens Coalition | 1992 | |
Finland | PS | True Finns | 1991–2011 |
France | FN | National Front | 1993–2012 |
Great Britain | UKIP | United Kingdom Independence Party | 1997–2010 |
Greece | LAOS | Popular Orthodox Rally | 2007–2012 |
Hungary | FIDESZ-MPP | Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Union | 1990–2014 |
MIéP | Hungarian Justice and Life Party | 1994–1998 | |
Jobbik | The Movement for a Better Hungary | 2010–2014 | |
Italy | LV | Venetian League | 1992–2001 |
LN | Northern League-Federal Italy | 1992–2013 | |
Casa | House of Freedom | 1994–2001 | |
MS | Social Movement-Flame Tricolore | 1996–2006 | |
FI | Forward Italy | 2006 | |
M5S | Five Star Movement | 2013 | |
Latvia | TB | Union For Homeland and Freedom | 1993–1995 |
NA | National Alliance “All For Latvia!”—“For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK” | 2010–2014 | |
Netherlands | CD | Centre Democrats | 1994–1998 |
LPF | List Pim Fortuyn | 2002–2003 | |
PVV | Party for Freedom | 2006–2012 | |
Poland | PX | Party X | 1991 |
KPN | Confederation for Independent Poland | 1991–1993 | |
ROP | Movement for Rebuilding Poland | 1997 | |
PiS | Law and Justice | 2001–2011 | |
LPR | League of Polish Families | 2001–2007 | |
Romania | PUNR | Party of Romanian National Unity | 1992–1996 |
PRM | Greater Romania Party | 1992–2008 | |
Slovakia | SNS | Slovak National Party | 1990–2010 |
OLaNO | Ordinary People and Independent Personalities | 2012 | |
Slovenia | SNS | Slovenian National Party | 1996–2008 |
Sweden | NyD | New Democracy | 1991–1998 |
SD | Sweden Democrats | 1991–2014 | |
Switzerland | SD | Swiss Democrats | 1991–2007 |
FPS | Freedom Party | 1991–2003 | |
SVP/UDC | Swiss People’s Party | 1991–2011 |
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Spittler, M. (2018). Are Right-Wing Populist Parties a Threat to Democracy?. In: Merkel, W., Kneip, S. (eds) Democracy and Crisis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72559-8_5
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