Democracy in an Age of Populism: How the populist radical right affects political support, polarization and notions of democracy

During the last decades, much of the academic debate has focused on increasing political discontent and eroding public confidence in democratic institutions. At the same time, in many European countries radical right populist parties (RRPPs) have gained growing shares of the votes. This research project investigates how the success of RRPPs affect democracy in Europe. More specifically, the project aims to answer three interrelated questions. The first is the question what happens with citizens' political trust and support in the wake of RRPPs? electoral successes. Second, the project will investigate what happens with political polarization and how increased polarization affects voters? attitudes toward their political opponents. Third, we will investigate if these processes also affect peoples? views of what democracy is. One of our central hypotheses is that the effects of RRPPs electoral successes to a large extent depend on how other parties respond when RRPPs becomes more popular. Should they be isolated or included in the policy process? The dilemma mainstream parties face is that an inclusionary strategy towards RRPPs might reduce dissatisfaction and radicalization among the RRPPs voters but could lead to disappointment about democracy among their own voters. Traditionally, research on RRPPs and their voters and research on political support have been conducted more or less in isolation from each other. Of course, many studies have pointed out the importance of the growth of RRPPs for political support and democratic legitimacy. However, this research has focused on how discontent affects RRPPs? success. By focusing on how RRPPs themselves -- rather than achieving success as an effect of public discontent -- affect public opinion and in the end political trust and support, as well as public notions of democracy, this project will make a novel contribution to both strands of research. So far, the project has generated several publications in international peer review journals. The most important, and quite surprising, finding is that government inclusion of RRPPs in Western Europe results in an increase in public satisfaction with democracy because people with nativist (anti-immigration) attitudes become more satisfied while satisfaction among non-nativists remains unchanged. Lately, the project has also generated important research on the relationship between anti-immigrant, or nativist, attitudes and notions of democracy. In two articles it has been demonstrated that nativists are less likely than other citizens to support liberal-democratic aspects of democracy (such as protection of minority rights and counter-majoritarian institutions) and a significant negative relationship between nativist attitudes and support for democracy as a system of government.

The aim of the project is to investigate how the growth of radical right populist parties (RRPPs) affect citizens' political trust, political attitudes, attitudes towards the democratic process, and political polarization. The project's point of departure is that voters take cues from their parties that shape their opinions on different issues. Given the radical rhetoric of RRPPs we believe that (and want to explore if) RRPP-voters over time will become (i) more negative about immigration, (ii) less satisfied with democracy and less trusting in fundamental political institutions), and iii) more supportive of direct democracy and more opposed to legal limitations on power. Similarly, we believe that (and want to explore if) a similar radicalization process, but in the opposite direction, is taking place among voters who vote for parties that oppose RRPPs. Third, we believe that (and want to explore if) the increase in political polarization that results from these radicalization processes decrease citizens' tolerance levels toward political opponents. Finally, we believe that (and will explore if) the radicalization processes are moderated by whether mainstream parties respond to the success of RRPPs by isolating or cooperating with the parties, because RRPPs moderate their radical rhetoric in the latter case and thus send less radical cues to their voters. Our project will provide important and novel insights about how previous strategies of responding to the populist "Zeitgeist" have affected political trust, legitimacy, public conceptions of democracy, and the political climate in European societies. This, in turn, can serve as lessons for a broad range of actors - academics, politicians, journalists, among others - concerned with, and depending on, democratic legitimacy.