Right-Wing Populist Party Organisation Across Europe: The Survival of the Mass-Party? Introduction to the Thematic Issue

Daniele Albertazzi,Stijn Van Kessel

doi:10.17645/pag.v9i4.5002

Daniele Albertazzi, Stijn Van Kessel

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v9i4.5002

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Abstract

This thematic issue assesses the organisational forms of a broad range of right-wing populist parties (RWPPs) across Europe (12 in total). It interrogates received wisdom about the supposed leader-centeredness of such parties and investigates, in particular, the extent to which the mass party, as an organisational model, remains popular among RWPPs. This introduction presents the aims, research questions, and analytical framework of the issue and justifies its selection of cases. The resilience of the mass party model highlighted in many articles challenges the dominant trend that party organisation literature has identified: a unidirectional shift towards “catch-all,” “electoral-professional,” or “cartel” organisations.

Highlights

Across Europe, traditionally dominant parties of the centre‐right and centre‐left have faced increasing elec‐ toral pressure from right‐wing populist parties (RWPPs)
Whilst the mass parties of yesteryear invested in recruiting activist members and building collective identities, the party organisation literature has since long identified trends towards alternative models, such as professional “catch‐all” (Kirchheimer, 1966), “electoral‐professional” (Panebianco, 1988) or “cartel” (Katz & Mair, 1995) organ‐ isations
Our starting assumption is that RWPPs tend to conceive the relationship between cit‐ izens and party elites differently from most of their competitors: Their populist message challenges “the political elites” precisely for disengaging with ordinary citizens

Summary

Introduction

Across Europe, traditionally dominant parties of the centre‐right and centre‐left have faced increasing elec‐ toral pressure from right‐wing populist parties (RWPPs). Whilst the mass parties of yesteryear invested in recruiting activist members and building collective identities, the party organisation literature has since long identified trends towards alternative models, such as professional “catch‐all” (Kirchheimer, 1966), “electoral‐professional” (Panebianco, 1988) or “cartel” (Katz & Mair, 1995) organ‐ isations. What these models have in common is a more diffuse ideological message and a weakening reliance on grassroots members. The final section introduces the parties selected for our research

Research Questions and Analytical Framework

How does the party try to attract members and activists?

Selected Right‐Wing Populist Parties