Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Populist Parties in Europe

Agents of Discontent?

  • Book
  • © 2015

Overview

Authors:
  1. Stijn Kessel

    1. Department of Politics, History and International Relations, Loughborough University, UK
      Institut für Deutsches und Internationales Parteienrecht und Parteienforschung (PRuF), Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: Studying Populism in European Party Systems

    • Stijn van Kessel
    Pages 1-32

  3. Populist Parties across Europe

    • Stijn van Kessel
    Pages 33-73

  4. Paths to Populist Electoral Success and Failure: fsQCA Analysis

    • Stijn van Kessel
    Pages 74-98

  5. Populist Parties in the Netherlands

    • Stijn van Kessel
    Pages 99-120

  6. Populist Parties in Poland

    • Stijn van Kessel
    Pages 121-143

  7. Populist Parties in the United Kingdom

    • Stijn van Kessel
    Pages 144-168

  8. Conclusion: Populist Parties and Their Electoral Performance

    • Stijn van Kessel
    Pages 169-183

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 184-239
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

Populism is a concept that is currently in vogue among political commentators and, more often than not, used pejoratively. The phenomenon of populism is typically seen as something adverse and, in the European context routinely related to xenophobic politics. What populism exactly is and who its main representatives are, however, often remains unclear. This text has two main aims: to identify populist parties in 21st century Europe and to explain their electoral performance. It argues that populist parties should not be dismissed as dangerous pariahs out of hand but rather that their rise tells us something about the state of representative democracy.

The study has a broad scope, including populist parties of various ideological kinds – thus moving beyond examples of the ‘right’ – and covering long-established Western European countries as well as post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. It presents the results of an innovative mixed-methods research project, combining a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) of populist parties in 31 European countries with three in-depth case studies of the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Politics, History and International Relations, Loughborough University, UK

    Stijn Kessel

  • Institut für Deutsches und Internationales Parteienrecht und Parteienforschung (PRuF), Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany

    Stijn Kessel

About the author

Stijn van Kessel is Lecturer in European Politics at Queen Mary University of London. His main research interests are populism, Euroscepticism, and the discourse, voters and electoral performance of populist parties in Europe. He authored articles in journals including European Journal of Political Research, Journal of European Integration, Journal of Political Ideologies and Government and Opposition.  

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation