ABSTRACT
Over the last three decades, parties of the “radical”, “populist” or “extreme” right have become an almost ubiquitous feature of West European party systems. During this “third wave” (Beyme 1988) of radical right mobilisation, preexisting parties modified their ideological profiles (e.g. the Austrian Freedom Party, the Swiss People’s Party, the Scandinavian Progress Parties), and many more completely new parties emerged. While some of them were nothing more than a flash in the pan (e.g. New Democracy in Sweden, see Taggart 1996), others found more durable electoral support. As of today, almost all West European political systems had to adjust (at least for a couple of years) to sustained extreme right mobilisation.
