Title of the Ph.D.-Project
Right-Wing Populist Electorates in Western Europe - A Comparative Analysis of the so-called 'Modernisation Loser'-Thesis

Since the mid-eighties most of the countries of Western Europe have developed a group of political parties which receive considerable electoral support and even participate in the governments of some countries, like Italy, Austria and Switzerland. These right-wing populist parties may be described by the following phenomenological characteristics: a charismatic leadership; the simplification of complex social problems; an antagonism to the political establishment; the creation of new identities through the dissociation from minorities and the appeal to corresponding sentiments and ressentiments. In the face of their success it is the question, whether there are cross-national success conditions for this phenomenon.

It is the task of this Ph.D.-project to verify the so-called ‘modernization loser’ thesis for the right-wing populist parties in Western Europe empirically. According to this thesis western industrial societies face constant economic, social, cultural and political change, which demands perpetual adaptation from their members. Objective or at least subjectively perceived economic marginalization, status anxiety and social exclusion affect the individual, who may experience insecurity as well as impressions of powerlessness and social isolation. The development of authoritarian attitudes can be the consequence. The own feelings of inferiority are compensated psychologically by feelings of superiority vis-à-vis minorities (‘outgroups’) and a radical nationalism. Political discontent acts as a catalyst for the activation of these ideological predispositions. This may lead to the demand of authoritarian policies, which right-wing parties and movements come after.

The ‘modernization loser’ thesis was developed first as an explanation for the electoral success of the NSDAP in the early thirties and has been applied to various right-wing phenomena since then. It is the question, whether this thesis may be transferred onto the subject of right-wing populist parties in Western Europe. Theoretical background to the presumption of transferability are theses by Dahrendorf and Heitmeyer who see the world as it is affected by processes of modernization commonly referred to as ‘globalization’ on the threshold of a ‘new authoritarian century' (Dahrendorf) respectively apprehend the development of a new ‘authoritarian capitalism’ (Heitmeyer): Socioeconomic, cultural, and political fragmentation, a proceeding individualization, as well as the hereby caused break-up of social milieus are leading to the manifestation of authoritarian personalities and rigidity in thinking, which demand authoritarian policies on their part. This demand is supplied by right-wing populist parties explaining their electoral success. In this theoretical context we may formulate the working hypothesis that right-wing populist parties in Western Europe are elected to a significant degree by modernization losers. This hypothesis is to be examined empirically with the aid of various bivariate and multivariate statistical techniques on the basis of existing sets of data.