Hoorcollege 11: Radical Right and Radical Left

Question 1

Radical definition

Answer 1

Not extreme politics. Extreme politics is against the system, radical only challenges it.

Question 2

Pre-war radical/extreme parties

Answer 2

1. Fascist: anti-liberal democratic, anti-parliamentarian, anti-liberal, anti-communist, anti-conservative. Create authoritarian regime with big focus on ethnic nationalism and a corporatist state.
2. Communist: Anti-parliamentary democracy and anti-liberal democracy. Goal was to create a communist society.

Question 3

Rise of radical right

Answer 3

Already a big radical right and left because of New Left movement and Cold War period which later became more moderate. Emergence of radical and extreme right happened in 90s with this ideology:
1. Strong anti-establishment
2. Market liberal
3. Increasingly anti-immigrant
4. Not necessarily anti-EU: north independent in EU and get rid of south

Question 4

Voters of radical right in the 90s

Answer 4

1. Lower middle class
2. Some working class
3. Lower educated
4. People with lower levels of trust
5. Less aligned

Question 5

Radical right influence in 90s

Answer 5

1. Anti-establishment challenged mainstream politics
2. Politicised immigration and European integration
3. Attracted more and more working class voters
4. Challenged how parties compete in party systems

Question 6

Growing support of radical right why and consequences

Answer 6

1. After Maastricht Treaty and collapse of Berlin Wall rising questions of migration and asylum.
2. Electoral success of populist radical right parties from this influences other parties.
3. Leads to move towards a populist radical right party family

Question 7

Radical right becoming more populist, why and in what way

Answer 7

1. Due to influence on other parties
2. Got very explicitly populist; people centred, manichean and anti-elite
3. Become more nationalistic to the point of nativism: states should be inhabited exclusively by members of the native group and that the non-native elements are threatening the homogenous nation-state
4. More authoritarian with strong ideas about law and order and became ethically conservative
5. Economically they were welfare chauvinistic (protecting their own, not redistribution and equality), anti-globalisation and market oriented, smaller role.

Question 8

Support for radical right 90s

Answer 8

1. More men
2. Lower educated and lower income
3. Combination of young and old
4. Lower levels of trust, satisfaction with democracy and political efficacy
5. Higher populist attitudes
6. More opposed to immigration and European integration
7. More authoritarian people

Question 9

Long term causes on demand side that caused radical right to grow

Answer 9

1. Globalisation and the economic transformations because of it
2. Changing cleavages

Question 10

Long term causes on supply side that caused radical right to grow

Answer 10

1. Cartelisation of parties
2. Changing mainstream party ideologies
3. Competition with new parties create dilemmas
4. More European integration

Question 11

Dilemmas radical right created for social democrats

Answer 11

1. Some switching from the working class between these parties
2. It is the working class people we think SHOULD vote for socdem that vote populist radical right
3. Social democrats have to choose between culture vs. economics, catch-all vs. niche, alliance with greens vs. not?

Question 12

Dilemmas radical right created for centre-right parties

Answer 12

Vote switching between these parties influenced how they talked about:
1. Immigration
2. European integration
3. Less influence on the economic dimension

Question 13

Changes in the left from 70’s onwards because?

Answer 13

1. New Left movement: fragmentation in left
2. End of Cold War: less and less people were/became socialists.
   Led to various lefts

Question 14

Various left groups 70s onwards

Answer 14

1. Green parties: environment, post-material issues, social justice
2. Radical left/New Left: anti-globalisation, social justice, environment, often post-material issues (often former communist parties)
3. Populist radical left parties: social justice, anti-globalisation, populism

Question 15

Left populist ideology

Answer 15

1. Oppose elites/large corporations
2. EU sceptical, but want more international regulation
3. Redistributive politics
4. Not socialist, less focus on class and traditional socialist themes. Focus on idea of the people

Question 16

Support for radical left

Answer 16

1. Combination of men and women and higher and lower educated
2. People with lower levels of trust and staisfaction with democracy, but higher levels of populist attitudes
3. People that wanted more political/economic equality, more sceptical on EU integration (on economic dimension), not more opposed to immigration (some in favour)

Question 17

Long term cause of growth populist left

Answer 17

1. Losers of globalisation: structural transformations of capitalism (fishing around the lower educated lower class voters)
2. Third way parties
3. Move to the centre of Green parties

Question 18

Populist radical right and left compared

Answer 18

1. Nativist vs economic equality
2. Authoritarian vs regulation
3. Anti-EU vs anti-EU (cultural vs economic)
4. Immigration vs economic
5. Both populist

Question 19

Commonalities of support populist radical right and populist left

Answer 19

1. Supporters often with lower socio-economic status
2. Oppose EU integration for different reasons
3. Nationalism, also based on different dimensions (cultural vs economic)
4. Populist

Question 20

Differences in support

Answer 20

1. Radical right has more male supporters, lower educated and anti-immigrant.
2. Radical left both higher and lower educated, more economic equality as goal.