ABSTRACT
Are Euro-sceptics and far-right parties taking over Europe? Media commentary and early analyses on the European Union parliamentary election in May 2014 makes this an apt question. The Danish People’s Party, the National Front of France and the United Kingdom Independence Party each became the largest party in their respective countries (De Sio et al. 2014). How should we ‘read’ these parties? How can we understand their electoral fortunes? The first thing to note is the lack of agreement among scholars both on how to name them and on which parties to include. As a starting point this chapter considers different theories about the disagreements and discusses concepts that in many ways provide links for understanding the growth of parties that seem difficult to name and classify. Right-wing populist, extreme right wing, far right, xenophobic, nativists, cultural racist, racist and fascist are some of the more frequently used names and descriptions for these parties. And with different labels come different judgements as to the goals of the parties and whether or not they are taking over Europe. To analyse them turns into an even more complex task if one takes into consideration that they change constantly (for example when they try to improve their image by toning down openly racist rhetoric). In addition, an analysis has to account for how other parties act, proactively or reactively, to the growth of these parties and their attempts at influencing the political agenda and the need for coalition building and party cooperation. The issues raised above form the foundation of this chapter and will be discussed both in relation to literature focusing on the disputes, and through two short, empirical examples from Denmark and Sweden. In doing this we work within a narrower frame than Europe by taking these two examples from the Nordic countries. In Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland there are parliamentary parties today which view migration and migrants as the most fundamental threat to society. In the Nordic region, these parties – right-wing extremist, populist, racist or however one labels them – have never been stronger. In Norway as part of the government, in Denmark as
one of the two leading opposition parties and the winner in the European parliamentary election of 2014. In Finland, the party had almost 20 per cent of the vote in the last national election (2011) and 12 per cent in the European one. In Sweden in 2014, the Sweden Democrats scored 10 per cent in the European election and later, 13 per cent in their national one. While the emergence of these parties says something important about our times, there are, as we noted above, significant differences and conflicts in the research into what it means. One research line uses the term ‘populism’ but this means different things depending on the context. The word is often used to denigrate politicians, political proposals or parties. In European political science and sociology research, it is frequently associated with the right wing or the extreme right wing and their focus on migration and migrants, or on the elite and the establishment. But populism is also a broader theoretical term that should be understood in its relation to democracy and politics in general. Some researchers use the term ‘extremism’ as their departure point and see it as being separate from populism. For others it is a variant of the same phenomena, and so on. This chapter is structured as follows. In the first section we introduce research on populism, with an emphasis on how it has been used in different contexts. Then we focus on two scientific research fields that have emerged with the concept of populism at their centre. In the second section the focus lies on research that, with a political philosophical approach, understands populism as an integral and sometimes threatening aspect of democracy and politics. The following section is oriented towards parties that are largely defined by their fight against migration. Right-wing populism and rightwing extremism are labels for parties that can be categorised as parties of discontent, racist parties and right-wing extremist parties. Using the distinction between parties of discontent, racist parties and right-wing extremist parties as our starting point, we take a quick look at the case of Denmark and the Danish People’s Party, as well as the Sweden Democrats. We round off the chapter with a brief review of the development of research into populism and the tension that exists between research which tries to understand populism in relation to democracy and politics, and research that sees radical right-wing extremist parties as a form of populist politics. We highlight some of the weaknesses in the research, and argue that, despite significant shortcomings in the research field, the discussion of populism poses a number of crucial questions about today’s Sweden and Europe.
