Do Voters Polarize When Radical Parties Enter Parliament?

2019/07/31 by Daniel Bischof, Markus Wagner · 1 voice · 11 citations
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Social Media and Politics

paper · doi:10.1111/ajps.12449

openalex publication_date 2019/07/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14

Abstract

Abstract Do voters polarize ideologically when radical views gain political legitimacy, or does the rise of radical voices merely reflect societal conflict? We argue that elite polarization as signaled by radical parties' first entrance into parliament leads to voter divergence. Immediately after the election, legitimization and backlash effects mean that voters on both ideological sides move toward the extremes. In the longer term, this polarization is solidified because of radical parties' parliamentary presence. A panel study of Dutch voters shows that the 2002 parliamentary entrance of a radical‐right party indeed led to immediate ideological polarization across the political spectrum. Estimating time‐series cross‐sectional models on Eurobarometer data from 17 countries (1973–2016) shows an additional long‐term impact of radical‐right party entry on polarization. The presence of radical voices on the right has polarizing effects, illustrating how such institutional recognition and legitimization can have a far‐reaching impact on society.

Citations

• Anti-immigration parties and the defence of liberal values: The exceptional case of the List Pim Fortuyn
• Party Systems in the Making: The Emergence and Success of New Parties in New Democracies
• Is Polarization a Myth?
• Source Cues, Partisan Identities, and Political Value Expression
• Affect, Not Ideology
• Motivated Skepticism in the Evaluation of Political Beliefs
• Estimating causal effects of treatments in randomized and nonrandomized studies.
• Review Article: Putting Polarization in Perspective
• Comparative Politics and the Synthetic Control Method
• Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program

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Discussions

• We know that far-right entry has consequences. It polarises, changes the emotional tone of debate, and can legitimise far-right positions. doi.org/10.1111/ajps... doi.org/10.1007/s111... doi.org/10 [bsky, 1 points, 1 comments]

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