Conditions Favouring the Success and Failure of Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Contemporary Democracies

Abstract

One of the most important political developments in established capitalist democracies during the past two decades has been the mobilisation of popular support for parties on the far right of the political spectrum. The electoral gains of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) and Christoph Blocher’s Schweizer Volkspartei in national elections, together with the showing of the Vlaams Blok in the 1999 European elections, suggests that rise of radical right-wing politics is more than a political flash in the pan. The fortunes of right-wing radical parties have, however, been mixed insofar as parties in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and Canada have done relatively well at the polls, whereas those in Italy, Germany, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand have fared rather badly. The electoral performance of New Zealand First is a case in point. Established in summer 1993, it won 8.4 per cent in the national election later that year, and its level of support rose to 13.4 per cent three years later.’ However, this success was short-lived, and in the 1999 national elections, the party gained a mere 4.3 per cent of the vote and returned to parliament only because its leader, Winston Peters, narrowly managed to win his seat. In much the same way, the German Republikaner Sweden’s Ny Demokrati and the Swiss Freedom Party (formerly the Autopartei) have seen a drop in their support, although, as the electoral history of the Scandinavian Progress parties demonstrates, a dramatic decline in electoral support does not necessarily mean political extinction.