ABSTRACT
Populism has been a long-standing political current in the Scandinavian political systems and goes against common perceptions of populism as short-lived, personalized and weakly institutionalized political forces. The presence of populism for more than five decades is due to successful mobilization of different policy niches, such as anti-tax, immigration, anti-EU policies, within the political systems combined with institutionalized and nationwide party organizations. The Scandinavian populist political parties have transformed from being marginalized positions, perceived as unreliable political parties, into parliamentary political parties with governmental credibility; with the exception of the Sweden Democrats, which is still treated as a pariah and surrounded by a cordon sanitaire. Regardless of the parliamentary position, the Scandinavian populist parties have succeeded in placing and maintaining their core policies on the political agenda. They have influenced the policy-making directly as support parties to or members in government and indirectly in terms of the adaptations made by the mainstream parties.
