Far-right agenda setting: How the far right influences the political mainstream

2025/09/30 by Daniel Saldivia Gonzatti, Teresa Völker · 8 voices · 6 citations
Social Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Political Influence and Corporate Strategies

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1475676525100066

Abstract

Abstract How do far-right actors influence mainstream parties over time? Previous research shows that mainstream parties contribute to the electoral success of far-right parties through coalitions or policy alliances. However, a long-term perspective on the influence of far-right actors, including parties, civil society organisations, and social movements, on mainstream parties’ communication is lacking. This article investigates how far-right actors and issues have influenced mainstream parties’ communication in Germany since the 1990s. Using automated text analysis, we analyse 520,408 articles from six newspapers. First, we semi-automatically collect far-right actors and mainstream parties and implement a structural topic model to analyse their issue agendas. Second, we use time-series analysis to examine agenda-setting effects and their drivers. The results show that far-right influence on mainstream parties’ communication has increased, particularly among opposition parties and around issues of Islam and migration. Notably, the agenda-setting effect cuts across party ideologies, indicating mainstream parties’ impact on the rise of the far right in democracies.

Citations

• Competition Between Unequals: The Role of Mainstream Party Strategy in Niche Party Success
• ‘Fear and loathing across party lines’ (also) in Europe: Affective polarisation in European party systems
• Discourse Networks of the Far Right: How Far-Right Actors Become Mainstream in Public Debates
• How terrorist attacks distort public debates: a comparative study of right-wing and Islamist extremism
• Affective Polarization and the Populist Radical Right: Creating the Hating?
• Far‐right protest mobilisation in Europe: Grievances, opportunities and resources
• Toward a Theory of Pernicious Polarization and How It Harms Democracies: Comparative Evidence and Possible Remedies
• The Causal Effect of Radical Right Success on Mainstream Parties’ Policy Positions: A Regression Discontinuity Approach
• Rethinking Political Communication in a Time of Disrupted Public Spheres
• Niche Party Success and Mainstream Party Policy Shifts – How Green and Radical Right Parties Differ in Their Impact
• Structural Topic Models for Open‐Ended Survey Responses
• Affect, Not Ideology
• If you can't Beat them, Join them? Explaining Social Democratic Responses to the Challenge from the Populist Radical Right in Western Europe
• The silent counter-revolution

Cited by

• The Logic of Connective Faction: How Digitally Networked Elites and Hyper-Partisan Media Radicalize Politics
• Mayors as gatekeepers? Local responses to the Alternative for Germany
• Democratic dissatisfaction, the far right, and party brand activation: lessons from the breakthrough (and downfall) of the Dutch New Social Contract
• Immigration and social citizenship in times of crisis: deepening and broadening citizenship
• The mainstreaming of the far right and democratic erosion. Three analytical pathways
• Cross-National Evidence of Disproportionate Media Visibility for the Radical Right in the 2024 European Elections

Discussions

• New paper out with @dasalgon.bsky.social: “Far-Right Agenda Setting: How the Far Right influences the Political Mainstream” doi.org/10.1017/S1475676525100066 #openaccess in @ejprjournal.bsky.social🧵 [bsky, 472 points, 6 comments]
• #NeuesAusDerForschung @dasalgon.bsky.social und @tevoelker.bsky.social unterstreichen in ihrer Analyse (für Deutschland, seit 1990), dass die Übernahme rechtsextremer Positionen durch andere Parteien [bsky, 17 points, 1 comments]
• Far-right agenda setting: How the far right influences the political mainstream doi.org/10.1017/S1475676525100066 far right; mainstream parties; political communication; agenda setting; automated text [bsky, 7 points, 0 comments]
• Eine weitere beunruhigende Studie, die mittels quantitativer Methoden zeigt, dass etablierte Parteien zum "discursive mainstreaming” der extremen Rechten beigetragen haben, indem sie deren Ideen Sich [bsky, 7 points, 1 comments]
• Radicaal rechtse ideeën over migratie en identiteit zijn in veel democratieën naar het politieke midden opgeschoven. Cambridge onderzoek laat zien dat dit komt door jarenlange subtiele verschuivingen [bsky, 6 points, 2 comments]
• Die Analyse von über einer halben Million (!) Zeitungsartikel von @dasalgon.bsky.social / @tevoelker.bsky.social (2025) stützt zurückliegende Untersuchungen: Talking Points und Themen der AfD zu übern [bsky, 4 points, 1 comments]
• Saldivia Gonzatti, Daniel, and Teresa Völker. “Far-Right Agenda Setting: How the Far Right Influences the Political Mainstream.” European Journal of Political Research, 2025, 1–23. doi.org/10.1017/S1 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
• doi.org/10.1017/S1475676525100066 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

Related

• How the media cordon sanitaire crumbles: lessons from Germany
• Discourse Networks of the Far Right: How Far-Right Actors Become Mainstream in Public Debates
• Far-right challenges to liberal democratic press norms: “indexing by proxy” in a German immigration debate
• The far right, the mainstream and mainstreaming: towards a heuristic framework
• Back to the Future? The Electoral Breakthrough of Far-Right Parties