Radical Parties Research Articles

Oversight, Accountability, or Influence? Understanding the Use of Monetary Dialogues in the European Parliament

The Monetary Dialogue (MD) between the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Parliament (EP) has received ample research that has offered an insightful discussion on the effectiveness of the dialogue as a forum for ECB accountability. However, most of the literature has focused on what the ECB is held accountable for or how the ECB engages in the dialogues. Key questions remain, however, regarding the goals and actions of the individual members of the European Parliament (MEPs) that this article seeks to address. First, we develop a theoretical framework that moves beyond a general concept of “accountability” and differentiates between accountability, oversight, and influence. By defining the concepts more precisely, our aim is to distinguish types of engagement and offer a comparative perspective to broaden the discussion of accountability forums. Second, our article contributes to a growing subset of literature on the MD that shifts the focus from what the ECB gets from the dialogues to how MEPs utilize the MD. To achieve this, we analyze and code MEP questions during the quarterly MD and investigate the impact that member state, national party, and EP political group affiliation have on the character of the questions asked by MEPs over time.

Game Changers: National Referendums and the Politicization of Europe

How do national referendums shape political contestation? This article explores this question by examining the politicization of European integration, a key “cleavage issue” restructuring political conflict across Europe. While national referendums are often assumed to intensify public contestation over European integration, systematic comparative evidence remains limited. This study contributes to the debate by analyzing 87 public debates on European integration across six Western European countries (Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland), including 12 debates with national referendums. The analysis draws on the PolDem dataset (Hutter et al., 2016), updated to include the Brexit referendum. Through comprehensive across-debate and within-debate analyses, the findings show that referendums are associated with heightened politicization, particularly by expanding actor participation and increasing issue salience. Civil society and other non-executive actors gain visibility in referendum contexts, reinforcing the view that referendums level the political playing field. Although referendums increase framing diversity, they do not consistently lead to more polarized or identity-focused debates involving radical parties, challenging the notion that referendums inherently drive cultural conflict. This study advances our understanding of how direct democracy shapes European integration debates and calls for further comparative research on institutional factors and endogenous conflict dynamics to better grasp the varied impacts of referendums on politicization.

The PSAI Peter Mair Memorial Lecture 2024 Ruling The Void, a decade on: reflections on Peter Mair's legacy

ABSTRACT After briefly rehearsing the arguments set out in Peter Mair's rather downbeat assessment of contemporary democracy, 'Ruling The Void' (2013), I want to focus on two main themes in the book. The first is Mair's claim that party systems have become more convergent: this rather depends on how you measure 'convergence' – manifesto data generally confirm Mair's view, whereas the electoral strength of radical parties points to the polarization of many party systems. I proceed to reflect on the implications of these findings for the quality of party government. Second, I address Mair's claims about the internal organization life of political parties – especially those relating to intraparty democracy. In essence, he saw modern parties as being generally less democratic than they purported to be, but it is far from clear that recent research confirms this claim.

The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR): ‘Eurorealism’ in the ninth European Parliament

ABSTRACT After the 2019 European Parliament (EP) elections, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party grouping experienced a major change in its representation and leadership, with the wholescale departure of its core British Conservative MEPs as a consequence of Brexit. Not for the first time, the ECR was written off by some commentators as merely another transient ‘Eurosceptic’ faction, with even its new, post-2019 party president, Georgia Meloni, representing the historically fascist Brothers of Italy (FdI). So which ECR featured in the 2019–2024 parliamentary session – the natural heirs of the mainstream British Conservatives or a ‘radical right’ group with a now emphatically populist, nationalist tone? In this article, it is argued that the ninth session saw the ECR truly establish itself as an important and coherent parliamentary group in Strasbourg and Brussels, complete with staff and resources, ostensibly acting as a strong voice for conservatism in Europe. With large numbers of MEPs from Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party leading the grouping, there was also much continuity with ECR policies that were opposed to political ‘ever closer union’, in favour of the single market, and enthusiastic about the wider role of the United States (US) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in international relations.

Social Media, Misinformation, and Attitudes Towards Democracy in Germany During the Covid-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT Social media platforms are a double-edged sword, serving as sources of both critical information and harmful misinformation. This duality has sparked debates about their potential role in threatening democracy, boosting radical parties, and amplifying authoritarian and populist attitudes. While much research has focused on how misinformation and social media usage can influence voting for radical and populist parties, research on how diffuse and specific support for democracy are affected by the level of misinformation is more scarce. This study examines how satisfaction with democracy, democratic legitimacy, and adherence to liberal democratic principles are shaped by social media usage and citizens’ susceptibility to misinformation. Employing novel data from an online survey conducted in Germany in June 2021, we show that political information sources and misinformation exposure have a greater impact on perceptions of democratic functioning than on support for democracy as a political ideal. Furthermore, for citizens prone to believing misinformation, media consumption habits have no significant impact highlighting a critical blind spot in addressing democracy’s resilience in the digital age.

Representation or reprehension? Radical-right electoral competition, satisfaction with democracy, and voter turnout

ABSTRACT An important issue in the research on radical parties asks a critical question: are these parties a threat or corrective for democracy? I analyze this question with specific regard to radical-right parties and political participation. Specifically, I ask whether the inclusion of a radical-right competitor in electoral contests serve to disenchant and demobilize voters, and present evidence of a potential causal mechanism through which we may see such an effect. First, through an analysis of election-level data in Europe I demonstrate this indeed appears to be the case: in elections where radical-right parties compete, turnout falls. I then look to survey data and causal mediation analysis to demonstrate why. Findings indicate radical-right electoral competition serves to decrease individuals’ trust in politicians and satisfaction with democracy, which in turn makes them less likely to turnout and vote.

Sovereignism as a product of crises: a comparative analysis of German and Spanish parties and their use of sovereignist claims

ABSTRACT Sovereignism is frequently considered as an important phenomenon in political science but barely studied on its own. This paper understands sovereignism as a distinct concept and explores sovereignist claims comparing two different political systems. It addresses the yet-to-be-discovered link between crises and increase (or stagnancy/decrease) in the adoption of sovereignist claims by political parties. Following a framing approach, we examine the euro, migration and COVID-19 crises to capture how these crises were used by German and Spanish parties to shape sovereignist claims. The analysis confirms that these three crises facilitated discursive opportunities for an increased use of sovereignist claims. Although newly emerged radical parties are identified as the main discursive entrepreneurs, mainstream parties also accommodate the sovereignist discourse under certain conditions. This paper makes an important contribution to studies on sovereignism offering an analytical framework as well as fresh insights on the conditions for the adoption of sovereignism.

The institutionalisation of parliamentary party groups. Towards a concept

ABSTRACT Notable efforts have been made to apply the institutionalisation concept to legislatures, parties and party systems. In contrast, parliamentary party groups (PPGs) were either side-lined or bundled under the concept of institutionalised parliaments and parties, which implies some conceptual confusion. However, PPGs should be treated as distinct topic given their role in stabilising the parliamentary business in all modern assemblies. Encouraging research to close that gap, we introduce a framework to study the institutionalisation of PPGs for which we use illustrations from various polities. We suggest that highly institutionalised groups exhibit stable personnel, coherent legislative behaviour, structural differentiation, well-established procedural routines, and autonomy in terms of policy decision-making, leadership selection, and resources. Also, we examine PPGs as embedded institutions and provide a conceptual map for varying relationships with the institutionalisation of parliaments and parties. Finally, we point to a widely unexplored field for comparative research including investigations on democratisation.

Quantifying energy transition vulnerability helps more just and inclusive decarbonization.

The COP28 agreement signals "beginning of the end" of the fossil fuel era, calling on countries to contribute to global efforts to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner. While a quantitative assessment of country's vulnerability in energy transition is a prerequisite for national and international policy makers to ensure a just and inclusive transition, it is notably absent in the existing research. Here, we develop a conceptual framework based on the vulnerability scoping diagram (VSD) method to assess differences in energy transition vulnerability across countries, with a specific focus on the challenges associated with transitioning away from fossil fuels. The resulting energy transition vulnerability index (ETVI) scores reveal that countries in the Global South generally exhibit higher vulnerability in their energy transition compared to those in the Global North, and this gap has widened over the past decade. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the decade-long trend of continuous decline in global energy transition vulnerability. This study also provides two important applications of ETVI scores, aligning them with major global sustainable development agenda. Firstly, we identify substantial differences in the dynamics of transition vulnerability across seven major party groups in the international climate change negotiations and distinguish four energy transition statuses in relation to achieving global climate goals: Stressful, Leapfrog, Potential Challenges, and Less Painful. Secondly, we demonstrate crucial synergies between energy transition resilience and the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

THE ROLE OF LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE AND EXECUTIVE BODIES IN UZBEKISTAN'S POLITICAL SYSTEM: LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS

This article explores the evolving role of local representative and executive bodies in Uzbekistan’s political system, with a particular focus on the increased participation of political parties in local governance. It examines the expansion of the powers of the Councils of People's Deputies, especially in relation to monitoring local executive authorities and ensuring the implementation of laws and governmental decrees. The study highlights the need for enhanced parliamentary oversight at the local level and discusses the potential impact of party groups in strengthening the socio-political framework of the regions. The article also addresses the challenges faced by local authorities in ensuring efficient governance, including insufficient use of the powers granted to political parties and the lack of a unified approach to solving socio-economic problems. Drawing on recent reforms, including experimental governance models in Tashkent, the article argues for a more robust legal framework to support local political oversight and promote greater accountability among local executive bodies. The findings underscore the importance of legal reforms aimed at enhancing the autonomy and effectiveness of local governance as a key component of Uzbekistan’s broader political and administrative modernization efforts.

The Local Party Branch and the Council Party Group: Who Governs?

AbstractThe relationship between the local party branch organisation and local councillors has been left largely unexplored in the party literature. We explore how this relationship varies within the case of Norway – a multi‐party system with large variation in municipal size. Based on a survey of leaders of municipal party branches and local lists, as well as qualitative interviews with branch and list leaders, we analyse the causes of variation regarding two dependent variables: the degree of integration between the party branch and council group and the involvement of party branches in council work. The overall picture is that work in branches and council groups is strongly integrated. However, local branches of left‐of‐centre parties are likely to be more involved in council work and less likely to be fully integrated with their council groups. The left‐of‐centre tradition of giving more power to extra‐parliamentary organisation seems to prevail.

West Lothians in the European Parliament? Diverging Vote Choices in Cases of Differentiated Integration

AbstractTerritorial differentiation entails challenges for legitimate representation as legislators may be empowered to vote on legislation that does not affect their constituencies. A typical example of this democratic dilemma is the “West Lothian question” in the United Kingdom, where all members of the House of Commons can vote on bills that only affect England. The European Union faces a similar dilemma when members of the European Parliament vote on bills from which their member states are exempted. We analyse EU legislators' voting behaviour on differentiated policies to provide the missing empirical evidence for an informed debate about the institutional design of legislative rules under differentiation. We show that legislators abstain more frequently than their party group colleagues when their constituency is not subject to a bill due to sovereignty concerns. This practice of abstention resembles an existing norm in the United Kingdom and mitigates the democratic dilemma associated with differentiation.

Tweet no harm: Offer solutions when alerting the public to voter suppression efforts

Voter suppression was a major issue during the 2018 U.S. Midterm elections. Civil rights organizations, advocacy groups, and celebrities used Twitter to urgently warn voters about potential problems at the polls. However, in raising awareness of these normatively problematic matters, these messages had the potential to negatively impact key measures of democratic health. We conduct a survey experiment exploring the effect of exposure to tweets about voter suppression on confidence in elections, democratic legitimacy, and vote intent. Tweets that highlight voter suppression without a solution depress confidence in elections across all party groups, suggesting that solely warning people about problems at the polls without concrete actions they can take in response may do more harm than good. In addition, tweets highlighting voter suppression increase democratic legitimacy among Republicans relative to Democrats, suggesting that the former see such efforts as beneficial. There is no impact of either treatment condition on vote intent. Normative implications for democracy are discussed.

Populist alone, but harmless together? Analysing inter- and transnational populism of EP parties ID and ECR on Facebook

Right-wing populist parties are highly successful in online communication and have made electoral gains in a wide range of European countries. In the European Parliament, until the recent European elections in 2024, the majority of them were distributed between the two party alliances and parliamentary groups Identity and Democracy (ID) and European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). To analyse their communicative strategies, we collected all Facebook posts of the party and parliamentary group accounts of ID and ECR ( N = 616) within one year (08/21–08/22). Subsequently, structural topic modelling (STM), sentiment analysis and manual content analysis were applied to determine their communication strategies. Overall, the results indicate that ECR and ID are communicating rather moderately online. However, while ECR differs significantly from its national member parties, ID seems to reproduce right-wing populist narratives. Overall, this paper argues for a stronger focus on European party alliances, not only national parties, when researching right-wing populist communication in the EU.

Flexible quantum data bus for quantum networks

We consider multipath generation of Bell states in quantum networks, where a preprepared multipartite entangled two-dimensional cluster state serves as a resource to perform different tasks on demand. We show how to achieve parallel connections between multiple, freely chosen groups of parties by performing appropriate local measurements along a diagonal, staircase-shaped path on a two-dimensional cluster state. Remarkably, our measurement scheme preserves the entanglement structure of the cluster state such that the remaining state is again a two-dimensional cluster state. We demonstrate strategies for generating crossing, turning, and merging of multiple measurement lines along the two-dimensional cluster state. The results apply to local area as well as to long-distance networks. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Roll call votes in the committees of the European Parliament: A new dataset

This forum article presents a new dataset on roll call votes in the committees of the European Parliament in the 2014 to 2019 legislative term. Data on roll call votes in the plenary has greatly informed research on the functioning of the European Parliament, broader legislative politics and European Union decision-making. Responding to transparency concerns about legislative decisions increasingly taken at committee level, a change of the European Parliament's Rules of Procedure introduced mandatory roll calls in committees from 2014. The article explains the context of the rule change, the data collection effort, and the data as such. A discussion of conflict across committees, party group cohesion and participation in roll call votes illustrates potential applications of the data.

Making “strategic autonomy” rhyme with “fiscal austerity?” Unresolved conflicts of (geo)economic ideas in EU infrastructure policy

As a reaction to intensifying global competition, measures related to strategic autonomy are gaining traction on the EU level. Yet they coincide with a general return to fiscal consolidation. With current developments more inconclusive than previously suggested, this article asks how the central actors in EU economic policy, both public and private, position themselves in the autonomy-austerity conflict. It introduces a political-economic approach to the role of (geo)economic ideas and state-business relations in EU policy formation. The article focuses on infrastructure policy as a main field within which the conflict unfolds. A content analysis of official documents systematically maps the positions of relevant actors. While an influential group of southern finance ministries, Directorates-General, center-left parties, and trade unions is promoting strategic autonomy, a shrinking constellation around fiscal austerity contains relevant veto players. The deadlock results in the attempt to reconcile both ideas via “targeted flexibility”: consolidation via the expenditure side and a delegitimization of non-investment spending, coupled with a public de-risking of private investments. The approach is supported by European capital, yet highly inconsistent and runs up against pro-austerity forces. The findings have strong implications for the EU’s future geoeconomic strategy and its ability to compete globally.

From fringe to front? Assessing the voting influence of the radical right in the European Parliament

Scholars have long believed that the influence of radical right parties in the European Parliament was indirect due to their internal heterogeneity, limited involvement in parliamentary activities, and the existence of a cordon sanitaire. However, the consolidation of these parties, marked by the Identity and Democracy group becoming the fourth largest group in 2019, raises concerns about their impact on European Union decision-making. This article seeks to understand the extent and conditions under which the radical right group in the European Parliament can influence policymaking. By analysing roll-call votes from the 9th term (2019 to 2024), we introduce a measure of voting influence, operationalised as the ability of a party group to sway the outcome of a vote in plenary. Our analysis reveals that while the radical right group frequently joins winning majorities in the European Parliament, its voting influence remains limited because of the low levels of conflict in plenary.

Research on the Cultivation of Primary School Chinese Core Literacy from the Perspective of Information Technology Media

In 2024, Huai Jinpeng, secretary of the Party Group and Minister of the Ministry of Education, pointed out in his speech at the National Education Conference that we should "strengthen the reform and innovation of education and teaching, and constantly explore and practice new teaching methods and means". Nowadays, cultivating primary school students' Chinese core quality has become an important direction of primary school Chinese classroom reform, the core of which lies in cultivating students' individual cognition and application ability of Chinese. Based on this, this paper breaks down the cultivation concept of primary Chinese core quality into individualized learning orientation, teaching orientation of students' subjectivity and feedback mode of multiple evaluation. The paper deeply integrates the use of information technology media with primary school Chinese teaching, and puts forward the cultivation mode of primary school Chinese core quality under the vision of information technology media. This model includes three parts: deep interaction of teaching and research, flipped classroom learning model, multiple evaluation and intelligent data management, in order to help the reform of the primary school Chinese core literacy training model.

Right-Wing Terrorism and Extremism as a Growing Threat to European Security

The article is devoted to the analysis of the growing threats of legal terrorism and extremism in Europe, the problem of the penetration and spread of extremism in the institutions of European democracy, which endangers the stability of democratic development and the preservation of liberal values. Researchers state that over the past twenty years, we have observed an increase in the right-wing terrorist and extremist threat in the countries of Western Europe, in particular, Italy, Germany and France - countries with a long history of terrorism and extremism. At the same time, it was the fascist regimes of Germany (German National Socialism) and Italy (Italian fascism) of the first half of the 20th century that became the historical predecessors of modern right-wing extremism. At the beginning of the 21st century, the success of right-wing radical parties in the elections in these countries created favorable conditions for the activation of far-right parties, which, according to experts and scientists, posed a threat to European democracy.