Right-wing Populism in East and West European Democracies, SoSe 2023, Benjamin Höhne

ABSTRACT

What faces does right-wing populism take in Eastern and Western European democracies? Based on populist parties in selected countries, we will examine their manifestos, electorates, and party system positions. At the beginning, we will focus on the question of what populism is (ideological positioning) and which different types can be theoretically distinguished from each other (especially left- and right-wing populism). Empirical analyses of populist manifestos (What are the core demands?), their voters (Who votes for populist parties?) and the position of populist parties in the respective party system (esp. populism as opposition or governing party) will be worked out in case studies based on research literature and publicly accessible databases. The goal of the seminar is to reveal commonalities and differences of right-wing populism in a comparative perspective and to deal with its challenges for pluralist democracy.

Coursework (Studienleistung): presentation of a case study on the manifesto, the voters, or the party system position of a selected populist party (about three pages), Examination (Prüfungsleistung): seminar exam (Klausur)

Selected Literature

Decker, Frank/Lewandowsky, Marcel (2012): Die rechtspopulistische Parteienfamilie, in: Benjamin Höhne und Uwe Jun (eds.): Parteienfamilien. Identitätsbestimmend oder nur noch Etikett?, Opladen, pp. 268-281.

Heinisch, Reinhard/Holtz-Bacha, Christina/Mazzoleni, Oscar (eds.) (2021): Political Populism: Handbook of Concepts, Questions and Strategies of Research, Baden-Baden.

Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira/Taggart, Paul/Espejo, Paulina Ochoa/Ostiguy, Pierre (eds.) (2017): The Oxford Handbook of Populism, Oxford.

Mudde, Cas (2007): Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe, Cambridge.

Oswald, Michael (ed.) (2022): The Palgrave Handbook of Populism, Cham.

Zulianello, Mattia (2020): Varieties of Populist Parties and Party Systems in Europe: From State-of-the-Art to the Application of a Novel Classification Scheme to 66 Parties in 33 Countries, in: Government and Opposition, 55/2, pp. 327-347.

Kurs im HIS-LSF