Constructing a neoliberal exclusionary state: the role of far-right populism in economic policy change in post-war Austria

Abstract

How and to what extent does far-right populism impact the nation-specific implementation of neoliberal policymaking? While scholarship convincingly demonstrated the importance of ideas and the political agents propagating neoliberal ideas in policy paradigmatic shifts, there is little investigation of the role that far-right populists play in economic policy change. Exploring the ideational power and impact of far-right populism in neoliberal policymaking provides an important insight into how neoliberal political economies enact nationalist cultural exclusion. The paper traces the process through which the Austrian Freedom Party’s ideational trajectory evolved in post-war Austria and how it impacted the political mainstream. The analysis draws from the party’s discourse in manifestos, interviews, and other publications in the period 1956–2006. The results show how the specific far-right populist actor, the Austrian Freedom Party, played a significant role in rendering neoliberal ideas viable as policy option early on and ultimately constructing the neoliberal exclusionary state. By empirically showcasing how political actors from the fringes of the political spectrum can impact economic policy change, this presents an important contribution to the study of paradigm shifts, which predominantly focused on major national political actors. In light of the recent rise of far-right populism in Europe and beyond, this raises important questions for the continuity and change of the global paradigmatic dominance of neoliberalism.

Assessing Regional Variation in Support for the Radical Right-Wing Party ‘Alternative for Germany’ (AfD)—A Novel Application of Institutional Anomie Theory across German Districts

“…Instead of advocating for a minimal state, these parties now tend to support a strong but exclusionary welfare state (Chueri 2022) and embrace economic nationalism (Clift and Woll 2013), departing from global market liberalism (Betz 2003, p. 76;Mudde 2007). However, empirical evidence from countries such as Hungary (Scheiring and Szombati 2020), Austria (Ausserladscheider 2022), Turkey (Güven 2016), Britain (Hopkin 2017), and the US (Pierson 2017) suggests that when right-wing parties come to power, they tend to implement policies that benefit the wealthy and powerful rather than implementing policies that promote social and economic equality (Lim 2021).…”