The effect of radical right fringe parties on main parties in Central and Eastern Europe : Empirical evidence from manifesto data

Do radical right fringe parties affect main parties in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)? Using data from the Manifesto Project, we analyze the relationship between radical right fringe parties’ and main parties’ policy programs regarding sociocultural issues in six post-communist countries of CEE. Even though radical right fringe parties have participated in government in several of these countries, and in Hungary a fringe party has become the country’s second largest party, our analysis shows that the sociocultural issues in radical right fringe party manifestos do not systematically relate to the changes in main party manifestos regarding those issues. Even if some of the main parties in our study might often agree with the radical right fringe parties, our analysis shows that the latter do not directly influence the policy priorities of the main parties

Leaders and laggards: explaining ambition in the design of preferential trade agreements

eingereicht von: Fabian Jonas Habersack, B.A.Literaturverzeichnis: Blatt 54-64Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg, Masterarbeit, 2017(VLID)460005

Regional nativism in East Germany: the case of the AfD

Until recently, Germany was somewhat of a political outlier among advanced liberal democracies. Unlike its neighbors, Germany proved relatively resilient to the sirens of radical right-wing populism. The success of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the federal election of 2017 marks a decisive break with this past. With more than 12 per cent of the vote it became the third largest party in the newly elected Bundestag. The results sent shock waves through Germany’s political establishment and across the entire country. With the AfD, a party entered the Bundestag, which in the run-up to the election had introduced a new confrontational and aggressive tone into the political discussion, designed to irritate and polarize. Leading party members used provocation to push the boundaries of acceptable speech and break established taboos (Steffen 2017). They justified their strategy arguing that they were only lending voice to ordinary people and providing a platform for their views. A number of its candidates, however, made no secret of their extremist views; nor did they try to hide their ties to right-wing extremist groups, both domestically and abroad, nor their amicable contacts with like-minded parties abroad, most prominently the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), and the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV)

Environmental Politics / Do women make a difference? : Analysing environmental attitudes and actions of Members of the European Parliament

Gender differences regarding the perception of and behaviour toward environmental problems are well documented: across countries, women express higher concern about the environment and are more likely to act pro-environmentally than men. Investigations of an environmental gender gap at elite level are, however, limited. To fill this void and to inquire whether female representatives are more likely to hold pro-environmental attitudes than their male colleagues and adjust their legislative behaviour accordingly, survey and roll call vote data of the sixth and seventh European Parliament are analysed. Male and female legislators expressed similar concern for the environment, yet women were significantly more likely to support environmental legislation than men even after controlling for political ideology and nationality. In light of the continuing underrepresentation of women across legislatures, these results indicate that environmental policies are disproportionally shaped by mens preferences.(VLID)460657

European Politics and Society / Reclaiming national sovereignty : the case of the conservatives and the far right in Austria

This article investigates how and why Austrian parties have (re)constructed claims of national sovereignty and brought them to the centre of political competition. Theoretically, claims for national sovereignty are directed at recovering the peoples autonomy from ‘sinister elites and ‘harmful outsiders like immigrants. As such claims vary in terms of policy content, salience, and discursive means, this article uses the analysis of manifestos and speeches to ascertain how the radical-right populist Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) constructed sovereignty claims in 2013 and 2017. Furthermore, it shows how the mainstream right Austrian Peoples Party (ÖVP) adopted these claims, significantly narrowing the gap to the far-right FPÖ on the national and economic dimension of sovereignty, and largely renounced its pro-European and anti-sovereignist positions by 2017. In a second step, we examine whether the claims by these two parties match the preferences of their voters. Here, the findings suggest that the FPÖs sovereignty claims broadly correspond to the demands of its voters whereas ÖVP voters only partially express support for such claims, mainly on the national sovereignty investigating in detail the form and conditions of their occurrence.(VLID)381901