Aslan, MC; (2014) A Fuzzy-set Qualitative Analysis of the Electoral Success of Radical Right Parties in Central and Eastern Europe, 2000 - 2010. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

PDF Mustafa Cagatay Aslan_Dissertation.docx Available under License : See the attached licence file. Download (2MB)

Abstract

Radical right parties are radical for their opposition to the principle of pluralism in liberal democratic regimes and right for their belief in the existence of natural inequalities among human beings. By employing the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis research technique, this study analyses for the electoral success of such parties in national parliamentary elections held in seven Central and East European countries (CEECs) during the decade from 2000 to 2010. These countries include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. In total, the study examines twenty parliamentary elections. It seeks to understand whether the Europeanization process, defined as the European Union’s political and economic influence on individual countries, increased the electoral strength of the parties. Despite the paramount importance of the EU’s influence on CEECs, this question receives less attention in the literature than it deserves. In addition to three demand-side conditions already examined in the literature, this study seeks to learn whether right wing mainstream parties’ position within the socio-cultural dimension of party competition contributes to electoral success. This question has also not received sufficient attention in terms of CEECs. This study concludes that the presence of a Europhile right-wing mainstream party was a necessary condition for electoral success, though this condition was not omnipresent. The presence of a large ethnic minority population emerged as a context-setting condition. In countries without this condition (Poland and Slovenia), the combination of the presence of a Europhile right-wing mainstream party and the absence of a party following liberal socio-cultural policies appears to have been responsible for the electoral success of radical right parties. In countries with large ethnic minority populations (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia), the combination of the presence of a Europhile right wing mainstream party and the presence of a party following liberal socio-cultural policies only partly led to the electoral success of radical right parties. In such countries, a high level of unemployment was also a part of the configuration leading to the electoral success. They were the supply side-conditions that primarily determined electoral success in countries without a large ethnic minority population, whereas demand-side conditions proved as important as supply-side conditions in countries with a large ethnic minority population. Overall, the findings of this QCA not only confirms Mudde’s (2010) ‘pathological normalcy’ but also extend its scope by identifying a configuration leading to electoral success of radical right parties in countries without large ethnic minority groups.

Download activity - last month

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as JSONCSVXML

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Archive Staff Only

View Item