Getting the Problem Definition Right: The Radical Right, Populism, Nativism and Public Health Comment on "A Scoping Review of Populist Radical Right Parties’ Influence on Welfare Policy and its Implications for Population Health in Europe"

Abstract

Building on Rinaldi and Bekker’s scoping review of articles on the impact of populist radical right (PRR) politics on welfare and population health, this short article formulates three pointers towards a framework that might help structure future research into PRR, populist politics more generally, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and other health issues. First, we discuss the centrality of welfare chauvinism to the PRR’s impact on health, taking this as a cue for a broader reflection on the importance on distinguishing between the nativist and populist dimensions of PRR politics. Secondly, we turn our attention to the potential moderating effect of the PRR’s welfare chauvinism on the welfare cuts proposed by their right-wing coalition partners, comments we see as pointing to the need to focus on nativist, populist, neoliberal and other threats to welfare policy more generally, rather than on the PRR only. Thirdly, we reflect on the paradoxical nature of welfare chauvinism – its negative consequences for the health of the ‘own people’ it proclaims to defend – as a starting point for a brief discussion of the need to consider carefully the not-so-straightforward relation between the PRR’s political rhetoric, its (impact on) policy and institutions, and the outcomes of such policy.

Taking the Relationship Between Populism and Healthcare Seriously: A Call for Empirical Analysis Rather Than Moral Condemnation Comment on "A Scoping Review of Populist Radical Right Parties’ Influence on Welfare Policy and its Implications for Population Health in Europe"

“…On this we fully agree with Rinaldi and Bekker and all other the scholars that have taken the opportunity to comment on their work. But such studies should move beyond equating populism to PRR parties 3 and/or the effects that some archetypical PRR parties and leaders have had on capital P politics and welfare policies. 4 In addition (or maybe even instead), we should study how in the context of: (a) disintegrating welfare states and the insecurities that come with it; and (b) a lack of trust in (established) political representation to discuss and deal with such insecurities; different kinds of populist movements and expressions emerge and start influencing healthcare decisionmaking in unpredictable ways.…”

“…Our main concerns revolve around the reductions and inferences made with reference to populism (see also De Cleen and Speed, 3 who raise concerns that resonate with our own). In the scoping review, the literature behind it, as well as the commentaries that followed, populism is defined as thin ideology, based on the principles of antiestablishment, nativism and authoritarianism.…”

“…We suggest to start by rephrasing -in analytical terms -what populism actually is. 3 In order to do so, we return to scholarship based on the work of Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau.…”

“…Also in the scoping review of Rinaldi and Bekker and the commentaries that followed, such positive exceptions are mentioned. 3…”

“…In fact, these parties have come to position themselves in very different terms, such as in juxtaposition of a corrupt elite. 3 By placing the relationship between PRR parties and welfare policies on the scientific agenda, Rinaldi and Bekker have thus made an important contribution to the political sciences.…”