Populism is a concept that is currently in vogue among political commentators and, more often than not, used pejoratively. The phenomenon of populism is typically seen as something adverse and, in the European context routinely related to xenophobic politics. What populism exactly is and who its main representatives are, however, often remains unclear. This text has two main aims: to identify populist parties in 21st century Europe and to explain their electoral performance. It argues that populist parties should not be dismissed as dangerous pariahs out of hand but rather that their rise tells us something about the state of representative democracy.
The study has a broad scope, including populist parties of various ideological kinds – thus moving beyond examples of the ‘right’ – and covering long-established Western European countries as well as post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. It presents the results of an innovative mixed-methods research project, combining a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fs QCA) of populist parties in 31 European countries with three in-depth case studies of the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom.
Table of Content
1. Introduction: Studying Populism in European Party Systems 2. Populist Parties in 31 European Countries 3. Paths to Populist Electoral Success and Failure: fs QCA Analysis 4. Populist Parties in the Netherlands 5. Populist Parties in Poland 6. Populist Parties in the United Kingdom 7. Conclusion: Populist Parties and their Electoral Performance
About the author
Stijn van Kessel is Lecturer in European Politics at Queen Mary University of London. His main research interests are populism, Euroscepticism, and the discourse, voters and electoral performance of populist parties in Europe. He authored articles in journals including European Journal of Political Research, Journal of European Integration, Journal of Political Ideologies and Government and Opposition.
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