[Séminaire d'axe] Restrained Radicals: Populist radical right parties in local government

The backlash of peripheral areas against mainstream parties has become a central theme of recent Western European politics. Concerns about the resulting rise of populist radical right parties, and their impact on liberal democracy, have intensified with their growing presence in positions of power. Their activities in local government, however, remain largely overlooked. In Restrained Radicals, Fred Paxton examines cases in Austria, France, Italy, and Switzerland to evaluate the ideological influence of populist radical right parties at the local level and the factors limiting their radicalism. Drawing from a wealth of new data, the book identifies two key drivers of variation: the institutional constraints of local government and the strategic decisions of national party leaders. Stark contrasts emerge in the impact made by these parties in local power across different peripheral areas of Western Europe, as well as in the impact felt by the parties themselves. The book broadens our understanding of the populist radical right party family, and the processes through which they are developing in the sub-national arena.

Speaker

Fred Paxton is a Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. 

He holds a PhD from the European University Institute. He is currently the Principal Investigator of a Leverhulme Trust-funded project on place-based identity politics.

Chair 

Brenda Van Coppenolle, Sciences Po, CEE