This document analyzes the causes and conditions that have allowed far right parties to succeed in Europe. It discusses factors on both the demand side (modernization grievances, economic grievances, cultural grievances) and supply side (political opportunity structure, party organization, ideology). Ultimately, it argues that cultural grievances related to rising immigration and anti-immigrant sentiment have been the primary drivers of far right party success. It uses Italy as an example, where parties like the League have capitalized on anti-immigration views to achieve electoral success and participate in government.

1. The Causes and Conditions That Have Allowed Far Right Parties to Succeed in Europe
(Paper #5: Far Right)
Mira McKee – mkm3475 – miramckee98@gmail.com
GOV324L: Governments and Politics of Western Europe
Due: Wednesday, December 5th

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Alongside many other changes that have swept the continent and the political atmosphere of
Europe in the past decade, there has been a proliferation of far-right parties into society.
Numerous political scientists and scholars, for many decades now, have conducted research on
why such parties exist, who is likely to vote for them, and how they emerge and gain traction in
society every now and then. In this paper, I will first discuss the possible reasons and conditions
that led to these parties being able to form and have a chance at being successful; next, I will
describe some of the many elements that contribute to the success of these parties and explain
why voters could be inclined to vote for them, and finally, I will provide an example of a nation
where a few far-right parties have been very successful and examine how they came to be.
Ultimately, I find immigration to be the paramount reason for the increasing success of far right
parties, paired with similar factors like modernization and economic conditions that lead to
further anti-immigrant sentiment.
When considering how and why far right parties have begun to form and permeate society in
Europe, we must examine factors that led members of that society to be ready for these parties,
on both the demand and supply side. According to Matt Golder, when looking at the demand
side, we must acknowledge factors such as modernization grievances, economic grievances, and
cultural grievances (2016). The modernization argument is a popular one: it essentially says that
there are “winners” and “losers” of globalization; the winners being those who adapted and
benefited from the economy shifting away from being labor-driven, the losers being those
manual laborers who could not adjust and thus have suffered since this change. Empirically
speaking, these “losers of modernization” are more likely to turn their frustration with being left
behind in this economic shift into votes for far right parties (Betz, 1993).

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In a similar vein, economic grievances are often a contributing factor to people choosing to vote
for far right parties. One reason for this involves Realistic Conflict Theory, which states that in
times of economic hardships, groups who have to compete for limited resources typically tend to
blame each other (or other “outgroups”) for the economic problems, further dividing said groups
(Danielidou, 2006). This idea of creating a prejudice and a division between multiple social
groups brings us to our third demand-side cause: cultural grievances. The debate about
immigrants is a topical one right now, especially in Europe, where thousands of immigrants pour
in every day (Migration to Europe in charts. 2018). These immigrants are often refugees in need
of help with nowhere else to go, but regardless of their reason for coming or their reason for
staying, during their time they are likely to place some kind of economic burden on the country
in which they enter. Nativism, or the idea of combining nationalism and xenophobia is one of the
fundamental aspects of most far right parties’ ideologies. According to Cas Mudde, nationalism
says that “states should be inhabited exclusively by members of the native group (“the nation”),
and that non-native people and ideas are fundamentally threatening to the homogenous nation-
state” (2017). In fact, anti-immigrant attitudes are often correlated with far right support (Allen,
2015).
Coupled with the demand side of explanations for far right party success and growth are factors
on the supply side: things that allow far right parties to even exist without considering voters’
needs. Here, the things that have allowed far right parties to emerge and prosper in Europe today
mainly have to do with a party’s political opportunity structure, party organization, and ideology.
(Golder, 2016). A political opportunity structure has to do with a nation’s electoral rules, the
party competition at that time, the media coverage, and the political cleavage structure. For
electoral rules, if a country has an electoral system that punishes smaller parties, far right parties

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are less likely to start up and thrive (Meyer and Miller, 2015). As for party competition, far right
parties do better when mainstream parties converge toward the center of the political spectrum
and leave them room to appeal to dissatisfied voters (van Der Brug et. al, 2005). Regarding
media coverage, the way in which the nation’s media decides to deal with and cover far right
parties matters considerably. Whether the media in a nation decides to strictly ignore far right
parties or conversely, cover them greatly (usually due to charismatic leaders and sensationalized
politics), changes the way in which they can grow in that country. Finally, the political cleavage
structure of a nation is also important to consider. If a nation has a stable and consistent political
cleavage structure, usually no new niche emerges, allowing for far right parties to form
(Minkenberg, 2003). All of these factors contribute to the amount of opportunity given to a
political party such as an up-and-coming far right party, which greatly affects if they will form in
any given nation, and, if formed, whether or not they will triumph.
Another factor on the supply side is the idea of any given party’s party organization. How well a
party is organized almost directly correlates with how successful they are as a party. Party
organization strength can generally be measured by how big a party is, how involved their
members are (especially at the local levels), the professionalization of the organization, etc.
Several studies provide evidence that strong party organizations help far right parties (Lubbers
and Scheepers, 2002). A final supply side factor that has led to the rise of the preponderance of
far right parties is arguably the most obvious one: their ideology. A lot of scholars in the past
have viewed the rise of far right parties as simply a wave brought on by worn out workers who
are tired of the system and want to stick it to the political elite by casting a “protest vote” for a
far right party (Betz, 1993). However, ideology has actually been found to be incredibly
important to far right party voters (van Der Brug et. al, 2005). Though ideologies of these

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extremist parties vary from nation to nation and party to party across Europe, some common
facets apparent in many are: radicalism/extremism, populism, and nationalism, and they’re all
huge vote-drawers that help ignite and sustain far right party support (Golder, 2016).
Through an analysis of numerous variables related to the many causes of the surge of far right
parties, there is one that I believe has the most convincing and accurate support than others: the
factor of cultural grievances, and more specifically, the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment
throughout Europe. Due to an unprecedented inflow of immigrants in the past decade and the
economic conditions that they have brought to the countries to which they come to, voters have
really started to resonate with the anti-immigrant rhetoric being spewed by far right parties which
thus has allowed those parties to succeed more than in the past. Whether a direct effect of
increased immigration, anti-immigrant rhetoric from important political figures like Donald
Trump and Marine Le Pen, or the aforementioned “modernization” grievances, it has become
more acceptable for people in modern day Europe to have, express, and vote for racist and
xenophobic ideals through the outlet of far right parties (Winberg, 2017). While these parties do
offer additional benefits other than the ideological aspect of nationalism and purity, the rise of
immigration has been extremely correlated with the rise of far right parties. One key example of
a country reaping the rewards or, to some people, facing the consequences of the rise of both
immigration and far right parties, is Italy.
Italy has unarguably faced one of the biggest waves of immigration and refugee movement in
Europe. Migrants from all across Africa and the Middle East swim across the Mediterranean sea
or travel across mainland Europe (thanks to the Schengen Agreement) to get to the safe haven
that is Italy, a situation that many Italians are not happy about. It is no wonder, then, that far right
populist parties have had such success in Italy in the past few decades. Currently, their

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government is a populist coalition government, comprised of the rightwing League and the anti-
establishment, Eurosceptic Five Star Movement (also known as “M5S”). Though the League is
not a majority player in the coalition, the fact that an extremist far right party like them is in the
Italian government and that they have coalition potential is significant. Multiple studies show
that many Europeans hold anti-immigrant views (Allen, 2015), and so do many Italians (Ellyatt,
2018). It is an ideology that the right-leaning parties throughout Europe have tried to run with
and capitalize on. The League’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, who advocates the slogan “Italy First,”
often utilizes outright xenophobic language to unite her party’s base (Politi and Ghiglione). This
shows the success of a far right party on two fronts: firstly, they are in a coalition government
and have a say in parliament, and secondly, they have pushed the more center-right party, M5S,
to shift their views more right and increase their anti-immigrant rhetoric, therefore setting the
stage for more rightist policy to be passed. Italy is just one of many European countries that are
facing an extreme wave of immigration and extreme backlash against it, wherein which many
voters have decided to go down the avenue of voting for far right parties.
Ultimately, much research has been done on the rise of far right parties in Europe, and for good
reason: their presence in Europe has grown dramatically and they have continued to impact
society in many ways in the past decade. This research has done a good job of providing many
possible causes for both the surge in the number of these parties present on the political stage and
the increasing electoral success that many of them have achieved. Throughout this essay, I have
described many of those factors, on both the demand and the supply side of reasoning. However,
one variable seems to be the root of the problem more than any other: immigration and the rise of
anti-immigrant sentiment in rhetoric throughout Europe and the world. Italy provides a great
example of how far-right parties, especially aided by an open electoral system and a charismatic

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leader, can thrive and even end up in government when they spread and advocate these anti-
immigrant ideals as many other far right parties across Europe have similarly done.

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References:
Allen, Trevor J. 2015. “All in the Party Family? Comparing Far Right Voters in Western
and Post-Communist Europe.” Party Politics.
Betz, Hans-George. 1993. “The New Politics of Resentment: Radical Right-Wing
Populist Parties in Western Europe.” Comparative Politics, 25, No. 4: 413-427
Danielidou, L., & Horvath, P. 2006. “Greek Cypriot Attitudes Toward Turkish Cypriots
and Turkish Immigrants.” The Journal of Social Psychology, 146(4), 405-21.
Ellyatt, Holly. June 5, 2018. Italy's new leaders vowed to expel 500,000 illegal migrants
— but it'll cost them. CNBC.
Golder, Matt. 2016. “Far Right Parties in Europe.” Annual Review of Political Science
19: 477-497.
Lubbers, M., Gijsberts, M. and Scheepers, P. 2002. Extreme right‐ wing voting in
Western Europe. European Journal of Political Research, 41: 345-378.
Meyer, T. M., & Miller, B. 2015. “The Niche Party Concept and its Measurement.” Party
politics, 21(2), 259-271.
“Migration to Europe in charts.” September 11, 2018. BBC News.
Minkenberg, M. 2003. “The West European Radical Right as a Collective Actor:
Modeling the Impact of Cultural and Structural Variables on Party Formation and Movement
Mobilization.” Comparative European Politics. 1: 149.
Mudde, Cas. 2018. “Why Nativism, Not Populism, Should be Declared Word of the
Year.” The Guardian.
Politi, J. and Ghiglione, D. February 9, 2018. “Meloni Takes Italian Far-Right back to
1930s Roots.” Financial Times.
van Der Brug, W., Fennema, M. and Tillie, J. 2005. “Why Some Anti-Immigrant Parties
Fail and Others Succeed.” Comparative Political Studies, 38(5), 537-573.
Winbreg, Oscar. 2017. “Insult Politics: Donald Trump, Right-Wing Populism, and
Incendiary Language.” European Journal of American Studies.