Abstract
AbstractEuropean mainstream right parties are increasingly choosing to include radical right parties in coalition governments or other types of stable and committed cooperation. How does this cooperation affect voters’ perceptions of party positions? This article examines whether coalition signals have a significant impact on voters’ perceptions of the specific policy issues that were at stake in the bargaining process. More specifically, does the issue ownership of the radical right cause voters to perceive mainstream parties as radicalizing on immigration issues pertaining to asylum and multiculturalism? I compare the perceptions of Dutch parties before and after two coalition formations that (formally and informally) involved a radical right party: the coalition with the List Pim Fortuyn in 2002 and the support agreement with the Freedom Party in 2010. Furthermore, I examine the long-term effects of the Danish mainstream right government's reliance on the support of the radical right Danish People's Party in 2001–11.
Highlights
European mainstream right parties are increasingly choosing to include radical right parties in coalition governments or other types of stable and committed cooperation
Following the notation in Joshua Angrist and Alan Krueger (1999: 1299), the observed placement by individual i of party j at time t absent the coalition formation is estimated as a function of party effects that are fixed over time and a year effect that is common for all parties
A great deal of recent literature in the field of party competition has been devoted to studying what happens to radical right parties and their reputations when they start cooperating with the establishment
Summary
European mainstream right parties are increasingly choosing to include radical right parties in coalition governments or other types of stable and committed cooperation How does this cooperation affect voters’ perceptions of party positions? This article unites two different literatures and extends them in novel ways It moves the literature on coalition heuristics from a sole focus on the abstract left/ right dimension, towards thinking more carefully about how the mechanism linking coalition formation and spatial perceptions works on more specific issues. It contributes to the party competition literature, which has so far focused entirely on how mainstream parties respond strategically in order to compete with radical right parties. One of the main contributions of this article is to explore the possibility that mainstream parties will risk being perceived as ‘selling out’ on their liberal principles concerning immigration and multiculturalism in order to form coalitions with radical right parties
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