Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T06:07:40.671Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Centrist anti-establishment parties and their protest voters: more than a superficial romance?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2020

Sarah Engler Open the ORCID record for Sarah Engler [Opens in a new window]
Sarah Engler*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and Centre for Democracy Studies, University of Zurich
*
E-mail: sarah.engler@uzh.ch
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

New centrist anti-establishment parties (CAPs) are successful competitors in Central and Eastern Europe. Due to their emphasis on anti-establishment rhetoric and a moderate ideological platform, their breakthrough is usually explained by voters’ dissatisfaction with existing parties. However, little is known about the ideological component of their support. Expectations on the impact of ideology on vote choice in the protest voting literature range from ‘pure protest voting’, which denies any impact of ideology, to a more moderate approach, which combines protest and ideological considerations. Using survey data, I confirm that CAPs attract voters with lower levels of political trust, but ideology also matters. The degree of ideological sorting, however, varies. While some CAPs mainly attract voters from one side of the political spectrum, others attract voters from the left to the right more equally. The differences in the initial composition of their electorates have implications for the parties’ future.

Keywords

centrist anti-establishment partiesprotest votingideological votingnew partiesCentral and Eastern Europe
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , August 2020 , pp. 307 - 325
Copyright
© European Consortium for Political Research 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armingeon, K., Wenger, V., Wiedemeier, F., Isler, C., Knöpfel, L., Weisstanner, D. and Engler, S. (2019), Comparative Political Data Set 1960-2017. Zurich: Institute of Political Science, University of Zurich.Google Scholar
Bakker, R., de Vries, C., Edwards, E., Hooghe, L., Jolly, S., Marks, G., Polk, J., Rovny, J., Steenbergen, M. and Vachudova, M. (2015a), ‘Measuring party positions in Europe: the Chapel Hill Expert Survey Trend File, 1999-2010’, Party Politics 21(1): 143–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakker, R., Edwards, E., Hooghe, L., Jolly, S., Marks, G., Polk, J., Rovny, J., Steenbergen, M. and Vachudova, M. (2015b), 2014 Chapel Hill Expert Survey. Version 2015.1. Available on chesdata.eu, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina.Google Scholar
Bélanger, E. (2004), ‘Antipartyism and third-party vote choice: a comparison of Canada, Britain, and Australia’, Comparative Political Studies 37(9): 1054–1078.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bélanger, E. and Aarts, K. (2006), ‘Explaining the rise of the LPF: issues, discontent, and the 2002 Dutch election’, Acta Politica 41(1): 4–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergh, J. (2004), ‘Protest voting in Austria, Denmark, and Norway’, Scandinavian Political Studies 27(4): 367–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernhard, L. and Kriesi, H. (2019), ‘Populism in election times: a comparative analysis of 11 countries in Western Europe’, West European Politics 94(4): 1–21.Google Scholar
Birch, S. and Dennison, J. (2017), ‘How protest voters choose’, Party Politics, OnlineFirst, pp. 1–16.Google Scholar
Bobbio, N. (1994), Left and Right. The significance of a political distinction, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bowler, S. and Lanoue, D. J. (1992), ‘Strategic and protest voting for third parties. The case of the Canadian NDP’, The Western Political Quarterly 45(2): 485–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, M. B. and Forsythe, A. B. (1974), ‘Robust test for the equality of variances’, Journal of the American Statistical Association 69: 346–367.Google Scholar
Caramani, D. (2017), ‘Will vs. reason: the populist and technocratic forms of political representation and their critique to party government’, American Political Science Review 111(1): 54–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Döring, H. and Manow, P. (2019), Parliaments and governments database (ParlGov): Information on parties, elections and cabinets in modern democracies. Development version.Google Scholar
Engler, S. (2016), ‘Corruption and the electoral support for new political parties in Central and Eastern Europe’, West European Politics 39(2): 278–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engler, S., Pytlas, B. and Deegan-Krause, K. (2019), ‘Assessing the diversity of anti-establishment and populist politics in Central and Eastern Europe’, West European Politics 42(6): 1310–1336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engler, S., Armingeon, K, and Deegan-Krause, K. (2020), Expert Survey on Party Claims on Corruption and Anti-Establishment Rhetoric, Bern/Detroit: University of Bern and Wayne State University.Google Scholar
Hanley, S. and Sikk, A. (2016), ‘Economy, corruption or floating voters? Explaining the breakthroughs of anti-establishment reform parties in Eastern Europe’, Party Politics 22(4): 522–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haughton, T. and Deegan-Krause, K. (2015), ‘Hurricane season: systems of instability in Central and East European party politics’, East European Politics & Societies 29(1): 61–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Havlík, V. and Voda, P. (2016), ‘The rise of new political parties and re-alignment of party politics in the Czech Republic’, Acta Politica 8(2): 119–144.Google Scholar
Havlík, V. and Voda, P. (2018), ‘Cleavages, protest or voting for hope? The rise of Centrist Populist Parties in the Czech Republic’, Swiss Political Science Review 24(2): 161–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kang, W.-T. (2004), ‘Protest voting and abstention under plurality rule elections’, Journal of Theoretical Politics 16(1): 79–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitschelt, H. (1992), ‘The formation of party systems in East Central Europe’, Politics & Society 20(1): 7–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroh, M. (2007), ‘Measuring left-right political orientation: the choice of response format’, Public Opinion Quarterly 71(2): 204–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kselman, D. and Niou, E. (2011), ‘Protest voting in plurality elections: a theory of Voter Signaling’, Public Choice 148: 395–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, L. (2011), Radical Left Parties in Europe, Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
March, L. and Mudde, C. (2005), ‘What’s left of the radical left? The European radical left since 1989: decline and mutation’, Comparative European Politics 3(1): 23–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marks, G., Hooghe, L., Nelson, M. and Edwards, E. (2006), ‘Party competition and European integration in the East and West: different structures, same causality’, Comparative Political Studies 39(2): 155–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAllister, I. and White, S. (2007), ‘Political parties and democratic consolidation in post-communist societies’, Party Politics 13(2): 197–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C. (2004), ‘The populist Zeitgeist’, Government and Opposition 39(4): 542–563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C. (2007), Populist Right Parties in Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C. and Rovira Kaltwasser, C. (2017), Populism. A very short introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oesch, D. (2008), ‘Explaining workers’ support for right-wing populist parties in Western Europe: evidence from Austria, Belgium, France, Norway, and Switzerland’, International Political Science Review 29(3): 349–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pop-Eleches, G. (2010), ‘Throwing out the Bums: protest voting and unorthodox parties after communism’, World Politics 62(2): 221–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, E. N. and Tucker, J. A. (2014), ‘Revisiting electoral volatility in post-communist countries: new data, new results and new approaches’, British Journal of Political Science 44(1): 123–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pytlas, B. (2016), ‘Between Apathy, Issues, and Indignation: Reconceptualising Radical Right Voter Motivations in Germany’, Paper presented at the Workshop ‘New Developments in Electoral Politics of Eastern Europe:Challenger(s) from within and beyond the Political Mainstream’, University of Bern, November 25th.Google Scholar
Sikk, A. (2012), ‘Newness as a winning formula for new political parties’, Party Politics 18(4): 465–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, B. (2017), ‘Populism in Central and Eastern Europe’, in Rovira Kaltwasser, C., Taggart, P., Ochoa Espejo, P. and Ostiguy, P. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Populism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 140–160.Google Scholar
Stanley, B. and Czesnik, M. (2016), ‘Poland’s Palikot movement: voice of the disenchanted, missing ideological link or more of the same?’ Party Politics 22(6): 705–718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Učeň, P. (2007), ‘Parties, populism, and anti-establishment politics in East Central Europe’, SAIS Review 27(1): 49–62.Google Scholar
van der Brug, W., Fennema, M. and Tillie, J. (2000), ‘Anti-immigrant parties in Europe: ideological or protest vote?’, European Journal of Political Research 37(1): 77–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Brug, W., Fennema, M. and Tillie, J. (2005), ‘Why some anti-immigrant parties fail and others succeed: a two-step model of aggregate electoral support’, Comparative Political Studies 38(5): 537–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar