Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/240403 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Citation: 
[Journal:] Politische Vierteljahreszeitschrift [ISSN:] 1862-2860 [Volume:] 62 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] Springer [Place:] Heidelberg/Berlin [Year:] 2021 [Pages:] 411-433
Publisher: 
Springer, Heidelberg/Berlin
Abstract: 
This article answers the question of why certain European mainstream parties have changed their policy positions on the GAL-TAN (Green/Alternative/Libertarian vs. Traditional/Authoritarian/Nationalist) dimension in recent years. I argue that these changes can be explained through the electoral success of new right-wing populist parties and the ideological proximity of conservative mainstream parties towards these parties. These arguments were tested with econometric models of mainstream parties’ policy positions in 11 Western European democracies between 2002 and 2019. The results indicate that mainstream parties chase the other “populist zeitgeist” by changing their policy positions on the GAL–TAN dimension in response to the electoral success of right-wing populist parties. Mainstream parties respond to this threat by closing the distance to these parties on the GAL–TAN dimension. However, this responsiveness is largely constrained to conservative mainstream parties. The findings have important implications for understanding mainstream party responsiveness towards rivalling right-wing populist parties.
Subjects: 
populism
electoral competition
spatial analysis
political parties
GAL-TAN dimension
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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