Are bans on political parties bound to turn out badly? A comparative investigation of three 'intolerant' democracies: Turkey, Spain, and Belgium

The banning of particular political parties in democratic states is commonly opposed not just on philosophical grounds but also with the practical argument that bans will prove pointless, counterproductive or endanger hard-won achievements. This paper questions that common wisdom — summed up in Hirschman's perversity, futility and jeopardy theses. It conducts a comparative empirical investigation of the consequences of recent bans on 'extremist' parties in three self-styled European democracies — Turkey, Spain and Belgium. It finds that those consequences were not as dire as predicted. This suggests that banning such parties, while by no means always the only or the right thing to do, is not necessarily a mistake, at least on practical rather than normative grounds