Appealing to the common people in West European party competition
Research Question
How do populist parties, and their non-populist competitors, construct the people by presenting their knowledge, norms and values, and practices and traditions as common, familiar, or normal?
Project Description
The success of populist parties is partly rooted in their appeal to ‘the people’. However, little is known about the ways in which the people construct such an appeal. This project examines how populist parties, and their non-populist competitors, construct the people by presenting their knowledge, norms and values, and practices and traditions as common, familiar, or normal. This project compares Dutch and French left- and right-wing populist parties by studying the references they make to the common, the familiar and the normal in their party documents, and in speeches of their parliamentarians and party leaders.
Selected Publications
Harteveld, E., W. Van der Brug, S.L. de Lange, and T.W.G. van der Meer (2021) Multiple roots of the populist radical right: Support for the Dutch PVV in cities and the countryside. European Journal of Political Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12452,
Rensmann, L., S.L. de Lange and S. Couperus (eds.) (2017) Populism and the Remaking of (Il)Liberal Democracy, special issue of Politics & Governance 5(4).
Akkerman, T., S.L. de Lange and M. Rooduijn (eds.) (2016) Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe: Into the Mainstream? London: Routledge.