Absorbing the Blow: Populist Parties and their Impact on Parties and Party Systems (Studies in European Political Science) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 178661314X ISBN 13: 9781786613141

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield/ECPR Press, 2019

Synopsis

The significance of populist parties and their presence in party systems is undeniable. Parties like the Dutch Freedom Party, the French National Front, and the Five Star Movement in Italy rank among the largest political parties in their party systems. Absorbing the Blow examines the effect of populist parties on eleven European party systems. The results are mixed. The book finds that impact often depends on the influence that populist parties have had on mainstream political parties -- those that hitherto dominated party competition. In some instances, populist parties reinforce existing patterns of competition and government formation. Party systems that were bipolar continue to be bipolar. In others change occurs, either because populist parties make it difficult for mainstream parties to form coalitions that were hitherto possible, or because their presence allows mainstream parties to form coalitions that were not previously conceivable. This collection seeks to analyse the way in which mainstream parties absorb the blow of populist party activity, and concludes that populist parties are one of several factors contributing to changes in party systems.

About this title

About the Authors

Steven B. Wolinetz is Professor Emeritus at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. Wolinetz writes about parties and party systems, smaller democracies (especially the Netherlands and Belgium, and the European Union). His publications include Parties and Party Systems in Liberal Democracies (1988), ‘Beyond the Catch-all Party: Approaches to the Study of Parties and Party Organization in Contemporary Democracies,’ in Linz, Montero, and Gunther, The Future of Political Parties, ‘The Transformation of Western European Party Systems Revisited’ and other articles on parties and party systems. He is currently working on a book, Parties and Party Systems in the New Millennium.

Andrej Zaslove is Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics at Radboud University (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), at the Department of Political Science, in the Institute for Management Research. His research focuses on comparative European politics, political parties, with a special emphasis on populism and the radical right.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield/ECPR Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 178661314X
• ISBN 13: 9781786613141
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 346
• Editor: Wolinetz Steven