ABSTRACT
In this chapter we discuss the main political cleavages and ideologies that form the background of contemporary European politics. We examine Europe’s authoritarian legacies of fascism and communism and how these remain part of the contemporary European political context. We investigate the left–right divisions in European politics among western European countries, starting from the 1980s, continuing with the post-1989 context and the new century. In this context, the left–right cleavage in Europe led to a debate of what kind of reforms were necessary to address globalisation’s consequences and the challenges these were posing, and what place, if any, a ‘united Europe’ had in these efforts. Looking more closely into the last two decades, we note that in western, northern, and southern Europe, traditional lines of political conflict appear to be in decline, albeit the far-right and far-left have achieved unprecedented electoral successes, while in central and eastern Europe, illiberal populist forces have also had significant gains. We build on these trends to discuss the EU factor and the development of a distinct level of European politics.
