POPULISTISKA RADIKALA HÖGERPARTIER I OLIKA KONSTITUTIONELLA KONTEXTER Mer eller mindre homogen partifamilj?

Abstract

The populist radical right party family is a relatively new phenomenon in Europe and is often seen as more fragmented and less coherent than other more established party families in Europe. However, Jungar and Jupskås (2014) argue that the populist radical right parties in the Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark are coherent enough to be one particular wellfunctioning party family. By analyzing parti names, transnational linkages and measuring coherence based on party positions on two dimension, the results show that tre out of four parties in the Nordic region can be seen as a well-functioning party family. In turn, with the inspiration of the teori of Arend Lijphart, the Nordic countries can be seen as one coherent constitutional context. Therefore, the question is if we can find another coherent populist radical right party family in another coherent constitutional context. By measuring distances between policy positions on the economic left-right and the liberal-authoritarian dimension, analyzing parti names and transnational linkages, this thesis argues that the populist radical right parties within the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland function as one coherent party family that is more coherent than the Nordic populist radical right party family.