ABSTRACT
New challenger parties in Western Europe have received extensive scholarly attention in the last decades. In reviewing the literature on the emergence of new parties, Hug (2001: 3) identifies three types of issues as ‘at the heart of the emergence of new parties’. First, immigration problems have given rise to new rightwing populist and extremist parties (Mayer and Perrineau, 1989; Husbands, 1992; Ignazi, 1992; Harmel, Svåsand, and Gibson, 1992; Betz and Immerfall, 1998). Second, the controversy over nuclear energy and the penetration of post-materialist values has generated ecology, left-libertarian, and New Politics parties (Kitschelt, 1989; Müller-Rommel, 1993; Poguntke, 1993). And third, Hug suggests that regional issues have invigorated the resurgence of ethno-regionalist parties (Urwin, 1983; Levi and Hechter, 1985; De Winter and Türsan, 1998). Although the selection and classification of these new challenger parties are discussed in more detail in subsequent chapters, the general concern of this book is with new challenger parties that explicitly address ‘new issues’ such as immigration, the environment, and regional autonomy.
