The other ‘other’: Party responses to immigration in eastern Europe

Scholarship on far right parties in Post-Communist Europe has borrowed findings and analytical frameworks from studies on the Western European far right. Similarly, studies on Western European far right parties have increasingly referenced instances of far right success in post-communist states. These parties are similar in their Euroskepticism and exclusionary populism. However, little work has compared voters for the far right between regions. Different political opportunity structures have consequences for far right voter profiles in four important respects. First, the linkage between anti-immigrant attitudes and far right support is stronger in Western Europe. Second, far right voters in Western Europe are less religious than their post-communist counter-parts. Third, post-communist far right voters are economic leftists, whereas rightist attitudes toward income redistribution slightly predict a far right vote in Western Europe. Finally, far right voters in Western Europe are more satisfied with democracy as a regime type.

“…As immigration into Eastern Europe increases, it will be interesting to see how the far right in the region responds (cf. Rovny, 2014).…”

Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

All in the party family? Comparing far right voters in Western and Post-Communist Europe

Allen

2015

“…Comparing PRR parties in CEE and Western Europe, studies underline the importance of left-wing economic orientation among CEE PRR parties (Bustikova, 2018; Pirro, 2017; Varga, 2018), the role of historical legacies and of territorial revisionism (de Lange and Guerra, 2009; Minkenberg, 2017; Pytlas, 2013) or the prominence of perceived threats from autochthonous ethnic minorities (Bustikova, 2014) as important characteristics of electoral mobilization. Issues concerning migration that played an important role for the rise of PRR parties in Western Europe have remained less prominent in CEE for more than two decades after 1989 (but see Rovny, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Civic engagement, political participation and the radical right in Central and Eastern Europe

Buzogány

2019

While the literature on mass society and social capital assumes a negative relationship between civic associationalism, political participation, social trust and populist radical right (PRR) voting, more recent studies provide more mixed evidence that fringe parties can mobilize support and consolidate by relying on complex networks of civil society organizations. However, these studies focus on supply-side explanations; there is little systematic evidence that includes demand-side evidence on PRR voting and civil society cross-nationally. Using survey data from two waves of the International Social Survey Programme, this article engages with demand-side explanations of PRR voting in five Central and Eastern Europe countries. The results show lower levels of associational membership and social trust but higher political participation among PRR voters when compared to voters of other parties. The article highlights the importance of taking into account demand-side explanations of fringe party politics.

“…First, some issues are likely to dovetail with others because they share an underlying ideological root. Elsewhere (Rovny, 2014), I demonstrate the ideological association between the issue of immigration and ethnic minority rights, both of which are different expressions of approaches to national 'others'. Second, the Massetti and Schakel (2015) article shows how underlying economic divides map onto the centerperiphery divide.…”

Section: Dimensionality and Issue Connectionsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Riker and Rokkan

Rovný

2015

Self Cite

This special issue studies the strategic interaction between major state-wide and regional parties in a political setting defined by multiple, potentially cross-cutting, political issues pertaining to the economy and the territorial organization of multi-national states. Through this framework, this special issue locates itself decisively in the behaviorist tradition of studying political competition. Stemming from the classical works of Riker and the Rochester school, and focusing on rational choice models, this tradition has influenced a lively literature on party strategies. This concluding article of the special issue argues that the findings of the substantive contributions create a bridge between the strategic, Rikerian literature they stem from and seek to engage with, and more sociological approaches to the study of political parties that focus on the structural features of politics reaching back to the works of Lipset and Rokkan. I suggest that, ultimately, this special issue demonstrates the socially, historically, and institutionally bounded opportunities of political parties. Fundamentally, the special issue makes a significant contribution to the strategic literature by suggesting structural limits to strategic behavior.