It depends on personal networks: Feelings of stigmatisation among populist radical right party members

Abstract

Stigmatisation has been recognised as a major factor influencing the fortunes of populist radical right (PRR) parties. While scholars have examined it by taking parties as units of analysis, this study focuses on the individual level by asking Which PRR party members are more likely to feel stigmatised? After offering a novel theoretical explanation for feelings of stigmatisation based on the personal networks in which PRR grassroots members are embedded, it then investigates stigma using an original membership survey of about 7,000 members of the Sweden Democrats (SD) and interviews with 30 of them. The survey results show that the higher the educational qualification PRR grassroots members have achieved, the more likely they will feel stigmatised. In addition, those who have never had any relatives and/or friends in the SD, and those who are employed in the public sector, are more likely to consider membership discrediting. The interview data shed light on the survey results, by illustrating how public employees and university students find it hard to be open about their membership as they are surrounded by people with left-wing views. By contrast, having relatives and/or friends who are members of the party reduces the stigma of joining PRR parties, becoming active in them, and talking about politics in public. Along with countering some of the prevailing wisdom about stigmatisation in PRR parties, the findings contribute to our understanding of PRR grassroots membership, which has long been an overlooked topic in the literature.

Norms of Democracy, Staged Democrats, and Supply of Exclusionary Ideology

“…In so doing, they suggest that the relation between norms and elite behavior is complex, and that both can affect one another. This conclusion supports the work of Ammassari (2022) and Art (2011), who have argued that social norms can also affect the behavior and decisions of individuals actively involved in politics.…”

The Enforcement of Political Norms

“…The radical right is a party family with similar characteristics in different countries (Mudde 2007;Norris 2005;Rydgren 2005), as are the policiy positions that make these parties counternormative. Moreover, previous literature has assumed an overall stigma against this party family, regardless of their specific country (Ammassari 2022;Bischof and Wagner 2019;Harteveld et al 2019). This suggests that enforcement mechanisms of these norms are likely to travel to other advanced industrial democracies.…”

“…Our paper speaks to three main strands of literature in political science and social sciences. First, our results speak to a growing literature on how democracies develop social norms against political behaviours that are regarded as undesirable (Ammassari 2022;Blinder, Ford, and 1 As discussed below, we do not focus on the mainstream Popular Party (PP) as a baseline because previous research has shown that, given its authoritarian connection, this party is counternormative. For example, Valentim (2022) shows that the party is typically under-reported in post-electoral surveys, that Spanish citizens like it less than other parties, and that they place it more to the right than do the experts.…”

“…The important point is that the number of those who do is significantly larger than those who would impose a sanction on behaviour that does not breach norms. What matters is the comparison of sanctioning across different types of behaviour (behaviour that does and does not breach established norms), not the comparison of the share of passers-by who are 2 Certainly, previous research has hinted at social exclusion or judgment as one way through which social norms affect political behaviour (Ammassari 2022;Art 2011;Noelle-Neumann 1984). However, norm enforcement is not the main topic of these pieces.…”