Alternative Party Research Articles

A path forward: social democratic strategies and responses to far-right populist challenges

ABSTRACT Social Democratic parties have been in crisis across Europe in recent decades. The once dominant party family has struggled to adapt to the structural challenges of post-industrialization, changes in its core constituency, and increased political competition from alternative parties. This article analyzes the welfare chauvinist shift embraced by some Social Democratic parties to assess its viability as an electoral strategy in response to this changing political landscape and far-right party challenges. The article analyzes individual-level data from 26 European countries from successive European Voter Survey rounds for 2014 and 2019. This article tests the relationship between voter positions on government intervention, redistribution, and immigration and support for Social Democratic parties. Issue salience data is also examined to identify the importance granted by the public to different concerns over time. Despite claims that welfare chauvinist approaches represent a path forward for Social Democrats, this research finds that this strategy is not a broad winning formula. Rather there are incentives for Social Democrats to return to their egalitarian and progressive roots on key socioeconomic and sociocultural issues.

Crossing the Rubicon: Strategies and Motivations behind Cross-ethnolinguistic Vote-seeking in the Brussels Capital Region

How and why do political parties seek cross-ethnolinguistic support within a consociation? This article constitutes a thematic analysis of 30 interviews undertaken with MPs from the Brussels Capital Region (Belgium). It shows how both strategic and principled considerations underpin the logic of parties appealing to the other language group. I identify six strategies: employing customized communication, cultivating visibility, fostering cross-ethnolinguistic interactions, presenting alternative party offerings, establishing a ‘Brussels’ image, and navigating voters. However, in adopting these, they encounter (in)formal and practical obstacles. These findings are significant, as seeking cross-ethnolinguistic support is expected to mitigate tendencies toward outbidding and extremism.

The Fleeting Allure of Dark Campaigns: Backlash from Negative and Uncivil Campaigning in the Presence of (Better) Alternatives

ABSTRACT More aggressive campaigning styles focusing on criticizing opponents (negativity) or using inappropriate language to vilify opponents (incivility) tend to be disliked by voters, and remain thus risky for parties facing off in competitive elections. Backlashes against attackers often cancel out any dent the attacks may leave in the support for the targets. Yet, research on the conditions under which these backlashes are more likely to happen remains fragmentary. In this article, we argue that the nature of the electoral competition – specifically, the presence of viable alternative parties for voters to choose from – matters. Voters could be more likely to withdraw political support from the attacker when such alternatives exist. We test whether the availability and ideological attractiveness of alternatives intervene to explain the backlash effect associated with negativity and incivility, at the election, party, and voter levels. We do so comparatively in the context of the 2019 European Parliament elections in 27 EU countries, by linking a cross-sectional post-election survey (N = 18,790) with an expert survey covering the campaigning strategies of 175 parties that participated in the election across the continent. Estimating mixed effects multi-level models, we find support for the moderating effect of alternatives at the voter-level; voters who have at least equally attractive alternatives available to them are less likely to support parties that go negative than voters to whom the attacking party is the most viable option. Alternatives do not seem to play a major role, however, at the party and election levels.

Decolonizing Reading Publics, Decompartmentalizing German Studies

This essay focuses on the contemporary German literary public spheres, zooming in on the relation between a republic and its reading public. In the fraught political topography of contemporary Germany, marked by the arrival and eventual acceptance of over one million Syrian refugees since 2015, the rise of the extreme right-wing party Alternatives for Germany, resurgence of discussion on German colonialism in Africa, and extended public debate around the controversial Humboldt Forum in Berlin, the essay centralizes questions of race, colonialism, and migration. Connecting these key terms with current debates on decolonizing and diversifying the literary canon, the essay argues that decolonization is a direction, not a destination; it is a method, not a product, and attempts to decolonize a national literary canon must be conducted in connection with the larger public spheres, indeed by decompartmentalizing the classroom and the society.

The Contrasting Effects of Ethnic and Partisan Identity on Performance Evaluation

Why is voting behaviour tied to ethnicity in many new democracies? A predominant view, offered by the instrumentalist theory, argues that voters use candidates’ identity -ethnic or partisan- as a signal of expected performance. However, voters will reward well-performing politicians by being more likely to vote for them and punish bad performance regardless of candidates’ identity. To test these assumptions, we conduct a nationally representative survey in Kenya asking voters about their spending preference for the country’s main anti-poverty programme, which is managed by MPs in collaboration with citizens. We find that voters, regardless of ethnicity or party, have an erroneous view of how their MP spent the anti-poverty funds. Then in an experiment, we share with voters the spending made by the MPs and audit results probing for corruption. Once voters are aware that their MP’s spending does not match their spending priorities, their approval and likelihood of voting for the MP decreases if primed to view the politician as partisan. Voters also electorally punish MPs for corruption whether copartisan or non-copartisan. In contrast to instrumentalist expectations, if voters are primed to view their MP in ethnic terms, they are more likely to vote for their coethnic overlooking bad performance and corruption. The availability of alternative parties in local elections may explain why voters attach partisanship to performance evaluation. Still, in our case study, as in other new democracies, politicians continue mobilising support along ethnic lines, perhaps explaining why voters prioritise group loyalties if primed to think about ethnicity.

HOW IT WAS: RESULTS AND LESSONS OF THE MAIN EVENTS OF 1917 IN THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA

The article considers the main events that occurred in Russia in 1917. In February 1917, a revolutionary crisis arose in the country, which led to the overthrow of the 300-year-old Romanov`s empire. The old state apparatus was broken. At the end of winter of 1917, at a meeting of the State Duma, the Provisional Committee of the State Parliament (Duma) was created. The Provisional Government headed by Duke G.E. Lꞌvov had been formed by March 1. On March 2, Emperor Nicholas II signed the “Manifesto on the abdication of the throne of the Russian state and the resignation of the Supreme power.” As early as February, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies was created, it being headed by N.S. Chkheidze. Thus, dual power was established in the country. The newly formed government was unable to resolve the most important issues related to the life of the peoples of Russia. In early October 1917, V.I. Lenin began preparing an armed uprising in order to seize power. A course was taken for an armed coup. The conspiracy of the Bolsheviks was a success: the Winter Palace was taken, the ministers of the Provisional Government were arrested. At the II Congress of Soviets, a new government was created – the Council of People’s Commissars. The first decrees were adopted – the Decree on Peace, the Decree on Land, the decree on Power, proclaiming the establishment of the power of the Soviets. There was the only task on the agenda – the retention of power. The Constituent Assembly, for which alternative parties had high hopes, was dispersed by the Bolsheviks in early 1918.

Risk, institutions, and policy in decisions to join a start-up party: evidence from the 2017 snap election in Japan

AbstractResearch has shown that Japan's parallel electoral system altered the incentives that parties and their members face when competing for lower-house seats, leading to, among other things, more policy-oriented and less personalistic elections. What is less well known is how these altered incentives affect the decisions of incumbents to stay with their current party organizations or exit and join another political party. We address this question by using data from the 2017 snap election in Japan, specifically, the exit decisions of Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) incumbents. Typically exit decisions involve considerations of electoral support, policy, or increased office benefits. Our results indicate that policy considerations were a primary factor in DPJ members' exit decisions but also that exiting legislators considered the risks associated with these decisions, which was molded by available party alternatives, each's electoral strength, and a unique feature of Japan's electoral rules, the fact that it reduced the electoral risk for some but not all incumbents who contemplated switching parties.

Political Parties and Organization Studies: The party as a critical case of organizing

Organization scholars have extensively studied both the politics of organization and the organization of politics. Contributing to the latter, we argue for further and deeper consideration of political parties, since: (1) parties illuminate organizational dynamics of in- and exclusion; (2) internal struggles related to the constitution of identities, practices and procedures are accentuated in parties; (3) the study of parties allow for the isolation of processes of normative and affective commitment; (4) parties prioritize and intensify normative control mechanisms; (5) party organizing currently represents an example of profound institutional change, as new (digital) formations challenge old bureaucratic models. Consequently, we argue that political parties should be seen as ‘critical cases’ of organizing, meaning that otherwise commonplace phenomena are intensified and exposed in parties. This allows researchers to use parties as magnifying glasses for zooming-in on organizational dynamics that may be suppressed or concealed by the seemingly non-political façade of many contemporary organizations. In conclusion, we argue that organization scholars are in a privileged position to investigate how political parties function today and how their democratic potential can be improved in the future. To this end, we call on Organization and Management Studies to engage actively with alternative parties in an attempt to explore and promote progressive change within the formal political system.

ИДЕОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ ИСТОКИ И ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ НЕМЕЦКИХ «НОВЫХ ПРАВЫХ»

The article provides a description of the German right-wing parties and movements of the new generation, reveals their similarities and differences regarding the traditional right-wing and radical right-wing parties. The study traces the evolutionary path and continuity of the new right-wing parties, analyzes the reasons for the popularity of alternative right-wing ideas among the German electorate. Based on the analysis of the electoral campaigns from 2013 to 2021, assessing the effectiveness of the Alternative party political strategy for Germany as the only influential right-wing force is given. In conclusion the prerequisites for the decline of the new legal movement are described, and the conditions necessary for the movement to maintain the positions won in the society are also listed.

Plural Governance for the Management of Local Public Services: An Empirical Investigation on the French Car Park Industry

This paper investigates the use of plural governance for the provision of local public services. Most of the studies conducted on local data compare direct public provision (i.e., in-house provision where governments produce public services themselves, using their own equipment and employees) to contracting out. But governments actually face a more complex set of choices than the simple make-or-buy dichotomy. In particular, cities can simultaneously opt for the ‘make’ and ‘buy’ alternatives for the provision of the same public service, and thus produce a portion of the service themselves while contracting with external (public or private) companies. We show how contractual perspectives and the resource-based view of the firm help to understand the rationales behind plural sourcing. Organizations appear to be able to adopt this governance structure to enhance efficiency since it enables them to employ benchmarking strategies. However, authors in public management insist on the specificities of public sector contracting, and our analysis also includes political measures, such as the number of changes of political affiliation at the head of cities. Our empirical analysis examines data about car park management by 97 municipalities in 2010. We use a multinomial logit to compare three distinct alternatives: total internal provision, complete externalization, and plural sourcing. Our results clearly indicate that plural sourcing is a strategic choice that is adopted by municipalities to reduce the cost of service delivery when they suffer from high levels of fiscal stress. Plural governance does not result from the alternation of political parties in power, indicating that political factors do not play a significant role in explaining that sourcing decision.

Authoritarian diasporas in Indonesia and the Philippines: comparative perspectives on elite survival and defection

ABSTRACT The article compares the political trajectories of authoritarian diasporas in Indonesia and the Philippines, namely the subset of former regime officials that disperse across the electoral space after a regime transition. The main finding is that after the Suharto and Marcos dictatorships collapsed in 1998 and 1986 respectively, Indonesia's authoritarian successor party (ASP) fared better than the ASP in the Philippines. However, the authoritarian diaspora did better in the Philippines than in Indonesia. Engaging with existing scholarship on authoritarian successor parties and authoritarian diasporas, the article argues that the two variables shaping defection calculi are the prevailing levels of party institutionalization of both the authoritarian successor party and alternative parties as well as the type of reversionary clientelistic network available to elites in post-transition politics.

Are women more likely to throw the rascals out? The mobilizing effect of social service spending on female voters

This study focuses on gender differences in voter reactions to a corruption scandal in one’s preferred party. We analyze, in a framework of ‘exit, voice and loyalty’, whether women differ from men in terms of turnout (exit), and given that they vote, whether they prefer a clean alternative party (voice) or whether they continue to vote for their preferred party (loyalty) involved in a corruption scandal. We employ sequential logit models using data from the European Quality of Government Index (EQI) survey from 2017, which contains roughly 77,000 respondents from 21 EU countries and 185 regions. We find that women generally are less tolerant of corruption, but that the effect is highly conditional. In areas where social service spending is more widespread, we find that female respondents are more likely to vote for an alternative party. Yet the odds of exit increase among women when social service spending is lower.

Ideology and Party System Change in Consociational Systems: The Case of Non-Nationalist Parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Following a period of nationalist party dominance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, alternative parties have emerged to challenge the established parties with ideologies that seek to bridge ethnic divides. This article examines the ideological positioning of non-nationalist parties relative to nationalist parties and the challenges for such parties in supplanting the dominance of ethnicity in politics. Based on elite interviews and detailed analysis of party documents, we argue that these parties have identified sufficient electoral support for alternative conceptions of politics and inter-ethnic relations in postwar Bosnia to promote their non-nationalist agendas. The parties couple distinct non-nationalist ideas with ideological formulations that have the potential to bridge across ethnic groups. However, the stability in support for non-nationalist parties, even as individual parties with distinct ideologies rise or fall, suggests that the appeal of this approach is limited by the necessity of governing with nationalist parties and the appeal of state contestation.

Urban Regimes and the Policing of Strikes in Two Gilded Age Cities: New York and Chicago

Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that during the Gilded Age urban party machines incorporated working people through the use of patronage, informal provision of personal welfare, and limited concessions, thereby eliminating sustained labor and Socialist Party alternatives and keeping workers’ militancy and assertiveness confined to the workplace. That view is challenged by a historical comparison of the policing of labor disputes in New York and Chicago. In New York, organized workers were eliminated from the governing coalition of the Swallowtail-Kelly regime that succeeded the Tweed Ring, and police routinely used coercion to defeat strikes and intimidate Socialists. In Chicago, however, labor and Socialists were part of the governing coalition of the Carter Harrison regime, and the police took a hands-off stance in many strikes. This article explores the contrast in policing and the balance of social forces in the two cities and seeks to explain the differences by examining the political settlements that concluded Reconstruction, the ethnic makeup of each city's working classes, the different characteristics of each city's labor movement, and labor's ability to mount third-party challenges—all in the context of regional variations. It concludes that historians cannot assume that workers were incorporated into machines in this period.

The New Caledonia independence referendum: What happens now?

This article gives an interpretative treatment of the historical record, from France taking possession of New Caledonia in 1853, through to the current Matîgnon process, assessing indications for coming developments. Focused on the debate over independence, it considers: interests of the French state as both arbitrator and participant in events; relations among the indigenous Melanesian Kanaks, European French Caldoches, and smaller ethnic communities; memories of colonial exploitation obstructing progress; the large nickel industry; immigration, and associated minority status of Kanak society—a central problem. It describes the alternation of left and right-wing parties in government in France, with Socialist Party governments commencing moves towards independence, possibly in association with France, and conservative governments moving to countermand those moves. It posits that the parties in New Caledonia have improved their chances of finding a positive outcome through jointly participating in government during 30 years of peace.

The Political Implication of the 21st Knesset Election of 2019 in Israel and Its Prospect after the Election

The 2019 election of Israel has several political implications. Prime Minister Netanyahu of Likud party has ruled Israel for ten years since the 2009 election. His regime is appreciated as having established a strong security agenda that dominates Israeli politics. Even though Likud was predicted to suffer a political loss at the hands of the centrist White and Blue Party, Likud succeeded in winning with 35 seats in the Knesset. The White and Blue Party, winning the same number of the Knesset seats with Likud, emerged as a strong alternative party for the traditional leftwing party, Labor. The Labor Party’s political influence rapidly declined in this election, occupying only six seats of 120 seats in the Knesset. Therefore, this paper aims at examining its political implications as well as political background and result of the election. Furthermore, it will identify continuances and changes of Israeli politics identified through this election.

Political Crisis in France: «Gilets Jaunes» and the End of the «First Period» of the Emmanuel Macron’s Governance

The article analyzes the current political crisis in France, the most striking manifestation of which is the «gilets jaunes» (yellow vests) movement. The current crisis is partly a consequence of the protracted identity crisis at both extremes of French political spectrum, resulting from a long period of relatively conflict-free alternation of left and center-right parties in a relatively favorable economic environment that accompanies the development of a consumer society and a social state. This model, which can be called «consumer democracy», has failed with the onset of the global economic crisis. The «stepsons» of modern capitalism, who are used to relying on social guarantees from the «welfare state» persistently reject the neoliberal recipes favorable among elites for dealing with the crisis. A wave of «gilets jaunes» protests seems to be contingent on the specific situation that emerged in France during the presidential elections of 2017 and the beginning of the era of Emmanuel Macron, who aims at restructuring French society and economy. Its main feature is the growing public disbelieve in and simultaneous collapse of both political parties that occupy and divide the French political Olympus at the time of power transition. Macron’s supporters enjoy an absolute majority in the Parliament without any meaningful opposition capable of opposing the president. It allows for a rapid rate of reforms but produces a backlash from society that perceives the situation as a violation of the dialogue between voters and legislators. Dissatisfied people without any hope to be heard join the ranks of the mass spontaneous movement of «gilets jaunes», triggered by the introduction of the so-called «environmental» tax. This movement can be viewed from different perspectives – political analysis can be complemented by historical anthropology, because the spontaneous nature of the protest resembles the anti-tax uprisings of the 17th-18th centuries. From a philosophical point of view, it seems to be a reaction of outsiders to deep social transformations associated with the pauperization of the middle classes, globalization, waves of migration and the digital revolution. The government’s response – revocation of the law that triggered the movement and the launch of «big national debates» – led to a relative decline in the activity of «gilets jaunes», but the main reason for the downturn is preparation for the upcoming European elections, which could be used as an opportunity to voice their discontent with the president and to return the civil protest in the electoral channel. The «gilets jaunes» movement hardly has any political future, but its experience, social potential and methods can be used in future protests, since its main agenda has not been exhausted – reconciliation of the neoliberal economic policies with the interests of the disadvantaged part of French society.

Конвертаційні стратегії влади та політичної опозиції в Угорщині в 1990-их рр.

The paper clarifies the specificity of the interrelationship between the power and the political opposition in Hungary in the context of the theory of conversion of public capital. Particular attention has been paid to the power reloading stage, which logically should have led to systemic changes and deepening of modernization processes. The qualitative features, rates, and results of the modernization of Hungarian political system were mainly determined by how effectively political parties used the competitive conditions in order to accumulate and convert various forms of capital at the beginning of the transformation period. Even at the stage of the first democratic elections, they were able to quickly fill up the vacuum existing in the political field, and the chosen strategies were successful both for them and for the democratization of the political regime. Rational motives, based on access to power resources, are at the heart of the interaction between government and political opposition in Hungary. The choice of either a confrontational or cooperative engagement strategy depended on the parties’ estimated transaction costs. Limitation of democratic rights and freedoms as a result of the political activity of the pro-government parties became a barrier to healthy competition in which the opposition was primarily interested. The example of Hungary demonstrates that simulation modernization, democratization, and accelerated Europeanization trigger the political significance of the «gap» as a resource for the accumulation of political capital by pro-government parties and the creation of their own network of clientelist relations. Consequently, the country falls into an institutional trap which results in the crisis of democracy. The combination of parliamentary and non-parliamentary opposition gives us a possibility to conceptualize the «deficit of democracy» in election programs, and to «correct» the mistakes of the previous government after coming to power. That is why the alternation of parties in power ultimately leads to the consolidation of democracy.

Zum Sozialprofil der in Deutschland gewählten Abgeordneten des Europäischen Parlaments nach der Wahl am 26. Mai 2019

In Germany, the election to the 9th European Parliament (EP) was influenced by a modification of the electoral law, as it had already occurred in the preceding European election . The removal of the five-percent threshold once more gave seven small parties with a total of nine candidates access to the EP . The AfD managed to secure seats for eleven candidates (2014: 7) . In addition the election was mainly influenced by political controversies on the national level, which held especially true for the six established parties . The result was an impressive increase of seats for the Green Party and losses for the SPD and the CDU in particular . A main impact, caused by the voters’ decision but also by the parties’ appointments of candidates, was the huge number of new parliamentarians (more than 50 percent) in the EP, probably with some implications for the parliament’s capacity of action and influence . With respect to MPs’ social profile and their ability to exercise their parliamentary mandate in a politically competent manner, there are only few differences in the overall high educational background, in the age pattern, and some in the gender proportion . What has changed in comparison to the previous parliament is the previous parliamentary experience of the newcomers: It is lower but with significant differences between the parties . Especially AfD-MPs gained extraordinary little political experience before entering the EP (81 .8 percent) . This seems to be in correspondence with the anti-parliamentarian attitude of the Alternative Party . A counterweight are the established parties whose new MPs have ample parliamentary experience at the regional or national level or have at least been active in their party over years . [ZParl, vol . 50 (2019), no . 4, pp . 754 - 776]

The Creation of the Likud and the Struggle for the Identity of the Alternative Party

This article demonstrates how the process that eventually led to the founding of the Likud party in the fall of 1973, alongside the goal of creating an effective alternative to the Labor movement, was actually a failed attempt to diminish the influence of Begin and Herut within the Likud. Herut’s new and old partners wished to effect—through the creation of the Likud—a change in the identity and character of the alternative party. Contrary to expectations, Herut revealed itself to be an open and dynamic movement for an ever-growing sector of the public. The Herut movement became the key axis of the Likud, in light of demographic, cultural, social, and economic processes, which fashioned within Likud an alloy that symbolized the rise of a new Israeli identity. The article examines the internal processes within Herut that