QUESTIONING THE POPULIST RADICAL RIGHT PARTY FAMILY - Exclusion based on culture – more than rhetoric?

Abstract

The so called party family of populist radical right parties (PRRPs) have primarily been lumped together based on similarities in ideology (nativism) and immigration policy. While PRRPs’ immigration policy has attracted considerable attention from scholars, the other main political instrument to reach nativist objectives – cultural policy - remains understudied. To make research on the PRRP family more comprehensive, this thesis compares ideas on cultural policy between three Western European PRRPs (Dansk Folkeparti, Front National and Sverigedemokraterna). It turns out that two subgroups are distinguishable within the PRRP family, whereof one underpins their nativist rhetoric with political substance while the other does not. However, besides ideology, PRRPs also differ when it comes to other commonly used criteria in party family research. As discovered that these parties also differ regarding cultural policy ideas, their nativist ideology as the foundation for being a party family is questioned.