The Populist Radical Right by Mudde Cas;

Author:Mudde, Cas;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Immigration, law and order

As already underlined, attitudes to immigration and security are indicators of a new value dimension. The issue of immigration, in particular, has been transformed into a salient political theme all over Europe only in the 1980s – only Switzerland and Great Britain had faced the problem in an earlier period (European Parliament, 1985, European Commission, 1989, Husbands, 1988, Layton-Henry, 1988). The inability of the established parties to provide an answer to this problem in due time has favoured the development of extreme right parties which advocate xenophobic and racist positions.

The case of the French Front National is, in a way, exemplary. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the FN supporters and voters place the highest priority on the immigration issue, closely followed by that of security (Charlot, 1986, Ignazi, 1989c, Lagrange and Perrineau, 1989, Mayer and Perrineau, 1990, Taguieff, 1985, 1988, 1989). The ability of Le Pen’s party to ‘politicize’ a hidden issue is generally recognized as the keystone of its success. In a way or another, the same has happened in countries such as Belgium (Delwit, 1990), Norway (Lafferty, 1989, Madeley, 1990), Denmark (Andersen and Bjørklund, 1990), the Netherlands (Voerman and Lucardie, 1990), West Germany (Betz, 1990b, Westle and Niedermayer, 1990), Great Britain (Husbands, 1983), Switzerland (Church, 1989: 44, Husbands, 1988: 714–716).

In the world views of many extreme right supporters, immigration is closely linked to security. Where the immigrants are concentrated it is assumed that delinquency increases.

Law and order issues have been also agitated by moderate-conservative parties from time to time, independently of immigration. But no conservative party has ever put as much emphasis on these issues, nor taken as extreme positions, as the ERPs have done.

Therefore, the inability of the established parties to perceive, and to deal with relevant issues such as immigration and security, and the failure of conservative parties to suggesting tough policies, are related to the rise of ERPs.

In conclusion, the new cultural movement of neoconservatism has engendered a process of radicalization and antisystem polarization not controlled by the ‘conservative’ parties, from which the more extreme right-wing parties have benefited. In addition, mass public attitudes and behaviour characterized by a growing crisis of confidence in institutions, parties and party systems, the working of democracy, and by non-response to salient issues such as immigration and security, have favoured the development of ERPs.

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