The Changing Faces of Populism Systemic Challengers in Europe and the U.S
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FEPS Foundation for European CRS Fondazione Fondazione Italianieuropei Progressive Studies Centro per la riforma Fondation Européenne dello Stato d’études progressistes THE CHANGING FACES OF POPULISM SYSTEMIC CHALLENGERS IN EUROPE AND THE U.S. Edited by: Hedwig Giusto David Kitching Stefano Rizzo Published by: FEPS – Foundation for European Progressive Studies Rue Montoyer 40 – 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium info@feps‐europe.eu CRS – Fondazione Centro per la Riforma dello Stato Via Sebino 43 – 00199 Roma, Italy Crs‐[email protected] Fondazione Italianieuropei Piazza Farnese 44 – 00186 Roma, Italy [email protected] Edited by: David Kitching, Hedwig Giusto, Stefano Rizzo Distributed in the United States by Lexington Books ISBN: 978‐2‐930769‐01‐1 This book is produced with the financial support of the European Parliament Table of Contents Preface: Ernst Stetter (Secretary General, FEPS) 1 General Introductions: Massimo D’Alema (President, FEPS and Fondazione Italianieuropei) 5 Mario Tronti (President, CRS) 15 COUNTRY CASES Austria Austrian populism after the victory of the FPÖ in 1999: The political success of the discursive strategy of exclusion (Roberta Pasquarè) 27 France Populism and neoliberalism in France and Italy (Pierre Musso) 49 The Front National and the national‐populist right in France (Nicola Genga) 69 Germany The failure of right‐wing populism in Germany (Frank Decker) 87 Greece The rise of the Golden Dawn (Sofia Vasilopoulou, Daphne Halikiopoulou) 107 Ireland Hostage‐takers and gatekeepers: Populism and its potential in the Republic of Ireland (David Kitching) 125 Italy The demise of multi‐party politics and the rise of populism (Michele Prospero) 147 The Netherlands The different flavours of populism in the Netherlands (Koen Vossen) 173 Romania Populism in Romania (Gheorghe Lancan Stoica) 191 United Kingdom Anti‐Muslim populism in the UK: The development of the English Defence League (Joel Busher) 207 Central and Eastern European Countries Populism of fear: Eastern European perspectives (Daniel Smilov) 227 Nordic Countries Populism in the Nordic countries: New voices, old roots (Ann‐Cathrine Jungar) 255 United States The odd couple: Political parties and populist movements in America (Stefano Rizzo) 267 Appendix General bibliography 293 Country bibliographies 298 Contributors and editors 307 PREFACE Ernst Stetter he Foundation for European Progressive Studies has always T taken pride in its novel position within the European po‐ litical sphere. As a think tank and political foundation, we op‐ erate as an intellectual crossroads between the European project and social democracy. At the very heart of this func‐ tion is the task of bridging the gap between European citizens and their representative institutions. We aim to draw together different levels of democracy, from local government right through to regional, national and European administration. Populism is both a reaction to, and a product of, the grow‐ ing distance between citizens and their institutions of govern‐ ance, whether that is at state or European level. Populist movements accuse European Union institutions of elitism and remoteness from the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. At member state level, they accuse the politicians of traditional parties of catering to unknown interests at the expense of their own people, and of inefficacy in a rapidly changing world. Populists play on fear and demagoguery instead of en‐ gaging in constructive dialogue to help improve public life. SYSTEMIC CHALLENGERS IN EUROPE AND THE U.S. 1 They try to claim the mantle of democratic participation, while posing a most pressing and difficult challenge to demo‐ cratic institutions. Those who work within the political system have several options at their disposal. Some will adopt “copycat” tactics, absorbing some of the language of populist movements into their discourse. This runs the risk of legitimating such move‐ ments and bringing intolerant perspectives into the main‐ stream. Others will speak from an “Ivory Tower”, assuming that they know best and that they do not need to look beyond their own milieu. Yet elitism and populism are two sides of the same coin. Each begets the other and we see in several of the cases in this book that the technocratic impulse is often a par‐ ticular target of populist and anti‐system movements. The third possibility is to seek to understand these movements – and the conditions that allow for their growth – through rig‐ orous research and empirical analysis. Only when we under‐ stand such social and political dynamics, beyond the sound bites and received truths of the 24‐hour news cycle, will we then be able to offer viable counter‐arguments. This is the approach preferred by FEPS. It is about engaging in active citizenship to ensure the democratic legitimacy and viability of our representative institutions. It is a means to empower citizens to move beyond the easy answers of popu‐ lists to a basis for a genuinely reflective and participative de‐ mocracy. The foundation’s work on populist movements be‐ gan with an initial request for research on far right parties in 2011, although related issues of citizenship, migration, social inclusion and democratic consolidation have been part of FEPS research activities since the beginning. This particular project was born out of a conference in Rome organised by FEPS together with Italianieuropei and the Centro per la Riforma dello Stato. It was decided to publish a book of case studies to reflect the diversity and wide spec‐ trum of movements that presently exist in Europe and North 2 THE CHANGING FACES OF POPULISM America. It is impossible to include everything in one study but the pages that follow offer snapshots of groups ranging from new street movements and quasi‐parliamentary organi‐ sations to those that have been somewhat systematised. We hope the book serves as a fresh analysis to be used by policy makers, students and anyone with an interest in com‐ parative European politics. The perspectives presented in this book represent the views and analyses of the individual authors and not necessarily those of the three sponsoring foundations. Having said this, I wish to congratulate all of the authors involved and to thank them profusely for their valu‐ able work. I would also like to thank the three editors – Hed‐ wig Giusto of Italianieuropei, Stefano Rizzo of Centro per la Ri‐ forma dello Stato and David Kitching of FEPS – for the time and effort they have taken to complete this project. SYSTEMIC CHALLENGERS IN EUROPE AND THE U.S. 3 INTRODUCTIONS Massimo D’Alema n many European countries public discontent against tradi‐ I tional political parties is rising, and at the same time there is a growing consensus for anti‐establishment protest move‐ ments with populist undertones. In an effort to effectively re‐ spond to this crisis, it is necessary to first identify certain lines of research. It is a commonly acknowledged fact that the decline of po‐ litical parties, especially in the European context, is the result – among other things – of the changes in the composition of society, the breaking up of the social compromise – the wel‐ fare state – which was a fundamental component of the plat‐ forms of the political parties in the post World War II period, and not just of the social democratic and labour parties. In Europe, over the last three decades, we have witnessed an ideological decline of the mass parties, albeit in different ways. In some countries, this decline has led to an actual systemic cri‐ sis, such as in Italy, for example, since the beginning of the 1990s, with various hitherto unsuccessful attempts to rebuild the political system, a process that is still dramatically under way. SYSTEMIC CHALLENGERS IN EUROPE AND THE U.S. 5 This process has been accompanied, in recent years in It‐ aly, by a radical criticism of traditional party politics. I am re‐ ferring here, in particular, to the 5‐Star Movement of Beppe Grillo, which has been hostile to the entire political party sys‐ tem right from the outset. It is, of course, difficult to classify this movement based solely on traditional criteria of political analysis, in terms of a classical political spectrum running from right to left, because it takes on some of the features that political science typically defines as "populist" and feeds on elements that come from both the traditional left and the traditional right. Grillo’s anti‐parliamentary, anti‐party and anti‐immigration position and his totalitarian claim that his movement should have no kind of dealings with other parties and aim at con‐ quering 100% of the vote are unquestionably the expression of a rightist agenda. On the contrary, criticism of social inequality, of the dra‐ matic rise in unemployment, or the protest against the cor‐ ruption phenomena that ever more frequently occur in the public sphere, are undoubtedly part of a left‐wing world view. Along with the extreme opposition to the financial and bank‐ ing system, pointed out as the enemy of the real economy, of households and small savers. However, we must stress the new picture that has emerged from the last local elections: they have highlighted the growing difficulties of the 5‐Star Movement, which, in my opinion, stem from the disappointment of supporters who voted the movement to bring in change and who, on the con‐ trary, have been left thinking that their vote was just a wasted opportunity. In the aftermath, in fact, of the good results achieved by the 5‐Star Movement at the parliamentary elec‐ tions, it steadfastly declared its unavailability to enter into any kind of negotiation to form a government, despite the Demo‐ cratic Party’s (the party with the largest mandate) search for dialogue. 6 THE CHANGING FACES OF POPULISM We must not, however, lose sight of the broader European context. Populist movements fuelled by anti‐party and anti‐ European sentiments, in fact, are not an exclusively Italian phenomenon.