ABSTRACT

One of the most significant events in European politics the past two decades is the emergence of radical right-wing parties, mobilizing against immigration and multiethnic societies. Such parties have established themselves in a large number of countries, often with voter shares exceeding ten and sometimes even twenty percent. Many of these parties exert a real influence on the policy within respective country.

The emergence of the recent wave of radical right-wing party politics has generated a large and growing literature, spanning a variety of dimensions—such as ideology, voting, and policy impact. This volume will cover all these dimensions, but it will in particular focus on two questions: why is it that the working class tends to be especially attracted by the radical right-wing parties? And what does the radical right-wing parties growing electoral successes mean for Social Democracy and the traditional left in Europe, which are meeting growing competition from the radical right over working class voters?

Bringing together the leading scholars within this field, this book makes a unique contribution by focusing on the relationship between class politics and the radical right.

chapter |9 pages

Introduction

Class Politics and the radical right

chapter 2|21 pages

The class basis of the cleavage between the New Left and the radical right

An analysis for Austria, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland

chapter 3|23 pages

Radical right parties

Their voters and their electoral competitors

chapter 4|16 pages

Working-class parties 2.0?

Competition between centre-left and extreme right parties

chapter 5|16 pages

In or out of proportion?

Labour and social democratic parties' responses to the radical right

chapter 6|15 pages

Right-wing populist parties and the working-class vote

What have you done for us lately?

chapter 9|17 pages

The class basis of extreme right voting in France

Generational replacement and the rise of new cultural issues (1984–2007)

chapter 10|17 pages

Another Kind of class voting

The working-class sympathy for Sweden Democrats

chapter 11|16 pages

Mobilizing the workers?

Extreme right party support and campaign effects at the 2010 British general election

chapter 12|18 pages

The radical right in Central and Eastern Europe

Class politics in classless societies?

chapter 13|28 pages

Social class and the radical right

Conceptualizing political preference formation and partisan choice