BlitzkriegAgainst Democracy: Gender Equality and the Rise of the Populist Radical Right in Spain

2021/07/02 by Alba Alonso, Julia Espinosa-Fajardo, Julia Espinosa Fajardo · 5 citations
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Gender Politics and Representation #Populism, Right-Wing Movements

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/sp/jxab026

openalex publication_date 2021/07/02 · openalex created_date 2021/12/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Abstract Populist radical right parties (PRRPs) are generally considered detrimental to democracy. Research on their damaging potential tends to focus on their influence in triggering policy backsliding but leaves the promotion of gender equality out of the equation. This study explores the case of Vox in Andalusia, a southern region of Spain, to show how PRRPs also contribute to de-democratization through their capacity to erode the equality framework. We demonstrate how they can effectively dismantle and reframe crucial policies, even when not in office. This opens new analytical pathways for studying the role of PRRPs in undermining democratic systems.

Citations

• Gender and the radical right in Western Europe: a comparative analysis of policy agendas
• Gender and right-wing populism in the Low Countries: ideological variations across parties and time
• Gender, right-wing populism, and immigrant integration policies in France, 1989–2012
• Gender as “Ebola from Brussels”: The Anticolonial Frame and the Rise of Illiberal Populism
• Strategies of right populists in opposing gender equality in a polarized European Parliament

Cited by

• When is gender on party agendas? Manifestos and (De-)democratisation in Greece, Portugal, and Spain
• The Normalization of the Radical Right
• Gendering democracy: feminist parliamentary responses to opposition against gender equality
• Victor Frankenstein and his creature: the many lives of ‘gender ideology’
• Sweden’s Updated Prostitution Policy: Populist Radical Right Influences and the Shift Away from Gender Equality

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• Public support for the cordon sanitaire : Descriptive evidence from Spain
• Urban jungle, radical roar: sprawl, economic decline and the success of populist radical right in metropolitan Spain