"Right-Wing Sentiment and European Integration"

Sobisch, Andreas. (1995) "Right-Wing Sentiment and European Integration". In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 1995 (4th), May 11-14, 1995, pages 10, Charleston, South Carolina.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the "anti-Europe" potential of the far right in five countries of Western Europe: Denmark, Germany, France, Belgium, and Italy. The conceptualization of the far right employed in this paper has two components: one focused on voting behavior and one on ideology (i.e., values and beliefs). It is important to keep both analytically distinct. Voting (behavior), in general, is critical because it determines the distribution of power in a democratic political system. The degree of success of radical parties therefore affects (and is effected by) the dynamics of competition in a political system, and it may also suggest something about the state of the democracy in it. But people often vote for a radical or extremist party even though they do not agree with its platform. Rather, they seek to "send a message" to the established elites (a phenomenon generally labeled "protest voting"). If one wants to know more about individual citizens' attitudes and motivations, one must study these more directly. This approach, which most often employs survey research, may also tell us much more about the underlying stability of a democracy, although this point often seems to be lost among students of extremism.