Politique comparée

B08 - Populism and Far-Right Parties

Date: May 31 | Heure: 08:45am to 10:15am | Location: Classroom - CL 435 Room ID:15717

Chair/Président/Présidente : Sara Pavan (University of British Columbia)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Sara Pavan (University of British Columbia)

Where the Right has not Risen: Left-Nationalist Parties the Weakness of Anti-Immigrant Politics in Canada and Ireland: Daniel Troup (Queen's University), Jacob Robbins-Kanter (Queen's University)
Abstract: The recent widespread increase in support for the far-right has inspired efforts to identify the extent of Canada’s vulnerability to right-wing populism, and to explain why the radical right has remained marginal thus far. Much of this scholarship focuses on distinctly Canadian features such as the country’s unique geographic circumstances, its history of institutionalized multiculturalism, or the electoral system it shares only with other Westminster democracies. The literature indicates that the marginality of ethno-nationalist or xenophobic politics in Canada is more likely a consequence of institutional idiosyncrasies than an indicator of exceptionally cosmopolitan societal predispositions. However, Canada is not the only country in which the far-right has been a perennially marginal force. Ireland, a country with substantially different geographic and institutional conditions, serves as another example. As with Canada, political scientists studying the Irish case have developed explanations based on case-specific idiosyncrasies. This paper expands upon the single-case approach and places these countries in comparative perspective in order to identify common features that may explain their shared outcome. It hypothesizes that the far-right is encumbered by the presence of significant left-nationalist parties. The Parti Québécois and Sinn Fein rely upon constituencies that could otherwise be expected to support far-right parties. Though case-specific circumstances undoubtedly matter, it is the presence of left-nationalism in both cases that can explain their common outcome. This contrasts with the UK, where support for the populist right has increased, and where left-nationalist parties do not rely on latent radical right constituencies.

How Far Right is the Far-right? Constructing Guttman Scale for European Extremist Parties: Simeon Mitropolitski (University of Ottawa)
Abstract: How far right on the left-right political scale are located European far-right parties? This question is relevant for reasons of expected governmental policy once these parties take control of political power, either alone or in coalition. Unfortunately, this question is not at the center of academic research. Within comparative politics, far-right parties and movements are usually analyzed either in relation to social groups who use them to channel their grievances, or in relation to their electoral performance and potential for social mobilization, or within the context of idiographic studies. This paper offers an alternative approach in analyzing European far-right parties. It proposes a new Guttman-type scale for measuring exact position of any far-right party both within the class of all European far-right parties and within the group of parties operating in one particular national political system. Guttman scale is a tool designed to empirically test the unidimensionality of a set of items. In the case of far-right parties, these items are social groups who are threatened to be excluded from social and/or political life. Far-right parties are not identical in identifying these groups, therefore these parties will occupy different degrees on the Guttman-type scale. In order to construct such a scale of European far-right parties that will be later applied for measuring the level of extremism of old and new parties, this paper will employ content analysis of party programs and electoral manifesto for European and national elections.