Right-wing populism
Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism,[1][2][3][a] is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establishment, and speaking to or for the "common people". Recurring themes of right-wing populists include neo-nationalism, social conservatism, economic nationalism and fiscal conservatism.[5] Frequently, they aim to defend a national culture, identity, and economy against perceived attacks by outsiders.[6] Right-wing populism has remained the dominant political force in the Republican Party in the United States since the 2010s.[7]
"National Populism" redirects here. For the book by Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin, see National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy.
Right-wing populism in the Western world is generally associated with ideologies such as anti-environmentalism,[8] anti-globalization,[9][10] nativism,[9][11][12] and protectionism.[13] In Europe, the term is often used to describe groups, politicians, and political parties generally known for their opposition to immigration,[9][14] especially from the Muslim world,[9][15] and for Euroscepticism.[16] Right-wing populists may support expanding the welfare state, but only for those they deem fit to receive it;[17] this concept has been referred to as "welfare chauvinism".[18][19][20][21][22]
From the 1990s, right-wing populist parties became established in the legislatures of various democracies. Although extreme right-wing movements in the United States (where they are normally referred to as the "radical right") are usually characterized as separate entities, some writers consider them to be a part of a broader, right-wing populist phenomenon.[23]
Since the Great Recession,[24][25][26] European right-wing populist movements such as Brothers of Italy, the League, the National Rally (formerly the National Front), the Party for Freedom and the Forum for Democracy in the Netherlands, All for Latvia, the Finns Party, the Sweden Democrats, Danish People's Party, Vox, the Freedom Party of Austria, Law and Justice, the UK Independence Party, the Alternative for Germany and the Brexit Party began to grow in popularity,[27][28] in large part due to increasing opposition to immigration from the Middle East and Africa, rising Euroscepticism and discontent with the economic policies of the European Union.[29] American businessman and media personality Donald Trump won the 2016 United States presidential election after running on a platform that was founded on right-wing populist themes.[30]
History[edit]
Germany and France (1870–1900)[edit]
German and French right-wing populism can be traced back to the period 1870–1900 in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, with the nascence of two different trends in Germany and France: the Völkisch movement and Boulangism.[59] Völkischen represented a romantic nationalist, racialist, and from the 1900s, antisemitic tendency in German society, as they idealized a bio-mystical "original nation" that still could be found in their views in the rural regions, a form of "primitive democracy freely subjected to their natural elites".[60][59] In France, the anti-parliamentarian Ligue des Patriotes, led by Boulanger, Déroulède, and Barrès, called for a "plebiscitary republic", with the president elected by universal suffrage, and the popular will expressed not through elected representatives (the "corrupted elites"), but rather via "legislative plebiscites", another name for referendums.[59] It also evolved to antisemitism after the Dreyfus affair (1894).[61]
Denmark and Norway (1970s)[edit]
Modern national populism—what Pierro Ignazi called "post-industrial parties"[62]—emerged in the 1970s, in a dynamic sustained by voters' rejection of the welfare state and of the tax system, both deemed "confiscatory"; the rise of xenophobia against the backdrop of immigration which, because originating from outside Europe, was considered to be of a new kind; and finally, the end of the prosperity that had reigned since the post–World War II era, symbolized by the oil crisis of 1973. Two precursor parties consequently appeared in the early 1970s: the Progress Party, the ancestor of the Danish People's Party, and Anders Lange's Party in Norway.[47]
Netherlands and France (2001)[edit]
A new wave of right-wing populism arose after the September 11 attacks. "Neo-populists" are nationalist and Islamophobic politicians who aspire "to be the champions of freedoms for minorities (gays, Jews, women) against the Arab-Muslim masses"; a trend first embodied by the Dutch Pim Fortuyn List and later followed by Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom and Jean Marie and his daughter Marine Le Pen's National Rally. According to Jean-Yves Camus and Nicolas Lebourg, those parties are not a real syncretism of the left and right, as their ideology and voter base are interclassist.[e][63] Furthermore, neo-populist parties went from a critique of the welfare state to that of multiculturalism, and their priority demand remains the reduction of immigration.[64][65]
