Riding the Populist Wave
Europe's Mainstream Right in Crisis

Cutting-edge comparative analysis of the challenges posed by the populist radical right to Western Europe's Conservative, Liberal and Christian Democratic parties.

Tim Bale (Edited by), Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser (Edited by)

9781009009058, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 August 2021

300 pages, 57 b/w illus. 13 tables
23 x 15 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

'The approach of the volume also merits comment, and positively so. Rather than simply bringing together a very strong group of colleagues to discuss 'their' country, the editors have provided an overarching theoretical framework, which is then underpinned by two comparative chapters: one demand-side on mainstream right voters, one supply-side on party positions. All of the chapters are grounded in rich empirical data (copiously presented in graphs and tables) and a coherent and incisive analytical framework, reflecting the long intellectual gestion of this project remarked on by the editors in their introduction. Taken together, this allows for a much richer analysis in which the aggregate picture can be unpacked and understood in particular cases. The result is a collection that is not merely indispensable for anyone interested in the mainstream right, but also speaks to the wider transformation of West European party politics, including all those academics looking at other party families. Clearly and logically presented, this volume is also likely to find its way onto the shelves of those journalists and party managers who are trying to make sense of this current political era.' Simon Usherwood, Journal of Contemporary European Studies

In spite of the fact that Conservative, Christian democratic and Liberal parties continue to play a crucial role in the democratic politics and governance of every Western European country, they are rarely paid the attention they deserve. This cutting-edge comparative collection, combining qualitative case studies with large-N quantitative analysis, reveals a mainstream right squeezed by the need to adapt to both 'the silent revolution' that has seen the spread of postmaterialist, liberal and cosmopolitan values and the backlash against those values – the 'silent counter-revolution' that has brought with it the rise of a myriad far right parties offering populist and nativist answers to many of the continent's thorniest political problems. What explains why some mainstream right parties seem to be coping with that challenge better than others? And does the temptation to ride the populist wave rather than resist it ultimately pose a danger to liberal democracy?

Preface
1. The mainstream right in western europe: caught between the silent and silent counter-revolutions Tim Bale and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser
2. The demand side: profiling the electorate of the mainstream right in western europe since the 2000s Eelco Harteveld
3. The supply side: mainstream right party policy positions in a changing political space Tarik Abou-Chadi and Werner Krause
4. Austria: tracing the Christian democrats' adaptation to the silent counter-revolution Reinhard Heinisch and Annika Werner
5. France: party system change and the demise of the post-gaullist right Jocelyn Evans and Gilles Ivaldi
6. Germany: how the Christian democrats manage to adapt to the silent counter-revolution Sarah E. Wiliarty
7. Italy: the Italian mainstream right and its Allies, 1994-2018 Pietro Castelli Gattinara and Caterina Froio
8. The Netherlands: how the mainstream right normalised the silent counter-revolution Stijn van Kessel
9. Spain: the development and decline of the popular party Sonia Alonso and Bonnie N. Field
10. Sweden: the difficult adaptation of the moderates to the silent counter-revolution Anders Ravik Jupskås
11. The UK: the conservatives and their competitors in the post-thatcher era Richard Hayton
12. The mainstream right in western europe in the 21st century Tim Bale and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Fascism & Nazism [JPFQ], Conservatism & right-of-centre democratic ideologies [JPFM], Liberalism & centre democratic ideologies [JPFK], Comparative politics [JPB]