ABSTRACT
During the past decades, West European society and politics have experienced important transformations. But Radical Left Parties (RLPs) have not remained static while advanced industrial societies changed. On the contrary, RLPs have experienced electoral fluctuations and reacted to social changes implementing different political and organizational strategies. This chapter describes the defining features of the West European Radical Left Party family, mapping the origins of this party grouping, their commonalities and differences. After presenting the parties whose electorate will be analysed, the chapter describes their electoral evolution across time. The chapter specifies the research questions, the analytical approach followed for the description and explanation of the RLPs vote, and the data and methods we use. We assess the role of demand-side, supply-side, and contextual factors in the explanation of RLPs’ electoral support during the first two decades of the 21st century in Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, using individual-level survey data (from the European Social Survey) and aggregate-level country- and party-specific variables.
