Please note that this account is now suspending all activity until further notice. Thanks for following and engaging throughout the years. We hope to see many of you on Bluesky, where we are continuing to post as @populisminaction.bsky.social

Please note that this account is now suspending all activity until further notice. Thanks for following and engaging throughout the years. We hope to see many of you on Bluesky, where we are continuing to post as @populisminaction.bsky.social

Please note that this account is now suspending all activity until further notice. Thanks for following and engaging throughout the years. We hope to see many of you on Bluesky, where we are continuing to post as @populisminaction.bsky.social

Find a link to the conclusions of our book here: https://t.co/jLiyxKgvHM

Hence the mass party survives on the right, too —and continues to provide specific ideological and practical advantages to its adopters. However, activists are only offered 'participation without power' by party elites...

Interestingly, the PRRPs under discussion here appear to have found a way to ‘have their cake and eat it’: they are able to rely on a committed group of activists, while also avoiding giving them too much of a say over how the party is run, its ideology, & its electoral strategy.

By demonstrating how adoption of the mass party model by PRRPs challenges conventional scholarly wisdom,the chapt offers practical lessons for old as well as new political parties that struggle to retain their electoral support & that are perceived to be losing touch with society

The chapter finds that, rather than a coherent shift towards ‘electoral-professional’ forms of party organization that rely ever less on active membership & involvement, what we witness is a process whereby different party types survive, adapt, & coexist, including the mass party

The final chapt offers a holistic portrayal of life inside our selected populist radical right parties (PRRPs): the League for Salvini Premier (Italy), the Vlaams Belang (Belgium), the Finns Party (Finland), & the Swiss People’s Party/Democratic Union of the Centre (Switzerland).

In the final chapter of our new book “Populist Radical Right Parties in Action:" we provide our comparative conclusions, after discussing party organisation & activism within 4 radical right parties in Europe. The book is free to download: https://t.co/6SbMuZtjlA

In chapt 5 of our new book “Populist Radical Right Parties in Action” we provide an account of lived experiences of active members of 4 radical right parties in Europe. What motivates them to stay in these organisations? Free to read, for all: https://t.co/2eEIaM72lo...

The importance of belonging and community... is there a lesson there for the radical right’s opponents?

Ideological goals were reinforced by feelings of social belonging and personal enjoyment, illustrating the typical nature of the mass party as a close-knit social community.

Yet interviewees typically felt that party membership provided a way of being part of an efficacious movement that represented their values and beliefs.

Several respondents were open about their individual influence on the party’s course and management being limited, & many cited what they saw as the negative effects of stigmatization associated with radical right membership.

We find that the activists of the League, Vlaams Belang, Finns Party & Swiss People’s Party are typically motivated to join by "purposive" incentives: hoping to shape society to their ideological preferences.

In chapt 5 of our new book “Populist Radical Right Parties in Action” we provide an account of lived experiences of active members of 4 radical right parties in Europe. What motivates them to stay in these organisations? Free to read, for all: https://t.co/2eEIaM72lo...

Interestingly, in-person participation remains key... Is there a lesson there for the radical right's opponents?

These organisations also invest to varying degrees in new technologies, especially social media, to reach a wider audience, yet these are largely treated as complementary to more traditional, face-to-face activities, rather than being seen as alternatives to them.

On the basis of analysis of party documents & 125 interviews with reps from League, Vlaams Belang, Finns Party, & Swiss People’s Party, we show how parties create a collective identity as key means to achieve organizational strength, visibility, legitimacy, & electoral success.