Introduction to Party Politics - European Radical Right Parties in Comparative Perspective

 

Monday, 16.15-17.45

Course Begin: Monday, 11.04.2016

BA-Seminar

SoWi-Einführung/ Social Sciences Introduction

6 ECTS

 

European politics is made by political parties; they dominate legislatures, control governments and influence public opinion. Recently the rise of new radical right parties in many European countries has led to heated debates. This course aims at discussing these developments comparatively.

In the first part of the seminar students will be introduced to what a political party is, what parties do and why they matter. In the following parts of the seminar, we will discuss theoretical concepts, such as party families, party systems, cleavages and party competition with regard to the rise of radical right parties. Thus, we will first look at what characterizes the radical right party family and then discuss alternative labels (e.g. extreme or far right, right-wing populist or anti-immigrant). Secondly, we will look at what explains why people vote for radical right parties and how this relates to change in cleavage structures in Europe. Thirdly, we will study in how far electoral and party systems can explain success or failure of radical right parties. We shall also discuss their campaigns and positions and study their organizational structure. Finally we will look at specific country cases in order to determine what similarities and differences exist between radical right parties in Europe. The seminar familiarizes students with key concepts and the current academic debate on the subject.

 

Literature: 
Gallagher et al. (2006): Representative Government in Modern Europe. 4th Edition. New York: Mc Graw Hill.

Mudde, Cas. (2007): Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Minkenberg, Michael (2008): The Radical Right in Europe: An Overview. Gütersloh: Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung.

 

Conditions for Participation: A good command of English (passive and active) is necessary to participate in the seminar.

 

Course Assessment: 
Sending questions on texts and moderating discussion in one session. In preparation for final paper, hand in research question and design during semester.

 

Language: English