Nowadays, and since the 1980s, far-right parties seem to gain more and more influence all over Europe. Each country has its own or even several: the British National Party and UK Independence Party in Britain, the National Front in France, the Golden Dawn in Greece, the Northern League in Italy or the Vlaams Belang in Belgium are examples amongst many others. This rise of such extreme right-wing parties is worrisome since they all praise for often highly controversial values and are considered by many as a threat for the democracy. Also, it is interesting to notes that the breakthrough of these parties has been important in among the states members of the European Union, and that furthermore they are all in favour of a return to a more conventional sovereignty. This would be achieved by ending the European Union and more broadly by restraining globalization. These aims may appear like a regress in view of all it has been accomplished over the last few years. In this way it would be interesting to answer to the following research question: what common characteristics do the supporters of far-right parties in Europe have? In order to offer an answer few theories will be introduced and analysed to determine the degree of their accuracy.
Theories
It is often said that the main characteristics of far-right parties and their supporters are xenophobia, nationalism and a politics of anti-immigration. This is the opinion of Catherine Fieschi who analysed the rise of the National Front in France, led first by Jean-Marie Le Pen and then by his daughter Marine Le Pen. According to her voting for their party means supporting anti-Europe, anti-immigration, anti-system and anti-Islam politics (2012, p. 11). But she points out that what led...
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In conclusion, it is for sure that the competitive party systems give a plenty of advantages in case of the improvements in the political, economic and civic welfares. But the modern party competition is not based solely on the ideology competition in many states, particularly in those developed countries with the long-standing democracies (USA, UK, most European countries). The facts in support of this argument are next: the changing proportion of mass-cadre parties, globalization, the increasing role of mass media, the domination of the middle class. In this essay the definition of the party, party systems was provided. The arguments for the main conclusion were represented and discussed in detail what resulted in the aforementioned conclusion.
In Sinclair’s analysis, voters, political activists, and politicians all play significant roles in creating and enforcing the ideological gap between the two major parties in Congress. This trend of polarization is rooted in the electorate
The spread of democracy has been one of the largest and most widely heralded trends in government worldwide – its prevalence and impact has been the subject of much political discussion and debate. In many cases, however, fewer observers focus on the electoral system used by the democratic governments themselves, which are in many cases equally important to the ultimate shape of the government formed. In general, the First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system that is used in Canadian Federal Elections has excluded and prevented third parties from having a large impact on the national stage post-WWII, forcing a bipartisan system of government. Central to this paper is an analysis on how third parties, in this case minor broad-based parties
Significant literature covers these parties, and evidence has been gathered on how to best limit the influence of extremist parties like the Golden Dawn that pose a threat to human and minority rights. The Ideology of the Golden Dawn: Illegitimacy Earns Legitimacy “We fight against the alteration of our racial demographics that is being conducted by the millions of illegal immigrants.
In Europe, for example, extreme-right parties are gaining supporters all over the mainland. In the old continent, leaders of nationalist parties have described themselves as the protectors of a welfare state that is allegedly under attack from immigration policies defended by liberals. Recently, far-conservative groups have risen as nations that were almost completely white and Christian in the past, received a mass influx of Muslim refugees from North Africa and the Middle East. Also, the situation worsened due to the economic insecurity caused by the euro financial crisis, as the left-wing parties did not provide answers to the setbacks.
In fact, as tensions continue to rise in the Middle East, they have been further exacerbated. In just the past few years, France has been struck by numerous radical terrorist attacks from the Charlie Hebdo attack, to the Nice Bastille Day attacks, to the infamous Paris bombings that took place a year ago. While tensions have remained high since the 1970s when immigrants first came under scrutiny by the French upper classes, never before has such global attention been paid to France’s immigration and religious toleration policies. What is even more concerning is that the perpetrators of some of these attacks grew up in the banlieues of Paris. As La Haine predicted, since the institutional problems facing the French government continue to be ignored, the fall will be that much more
During the second half of the past century the notion that, political science should be treated as a science became extremely popular among academics specially in the United States. One of the most prominent exposers of this school of thought was Anthony Downs, who developed a theorem to explain in a rather economic sense, how and why voters behave in a certain way when it comes to voting. Downs did not only applied his theory to the way voters behave, he also used it to explain the way political parties align themselves when it comes to elections in a two and a multiparty system nevertheless this essay will analyze Downs’ claims about a two party system only. This essay argues that the Downs’ model has proven to be accurate in many cases throughout history, nevertheless it makes a series of assumptions about voters and parties that can not be considered realistic neither in 1957, when he published his paper An Economic Theory of Political Action in Democracy in 1957 nor in 2013. This essay also acknowledges that fact that this theory might help to explain how parties behave but it is by no means the only explanation. Furthermore this essay will prove that it is a multiplicity of factors rather than an economic theory what can help us understand why parties behave the way they do. In order to support the argument previously stated this essay will state and critically analyze a number of Downs assumptions, then his theory will be outlined. Then it will carefully consider how effective it has been at predicting the way in which parties align themselves by examining the behavior of political parties during general elections in different countries.
Nationalism at its core is the support of a country. The goal of a country is to have some sort of resonance within the individuals that reside there that call themselves citizens. If the citizens don’t feel any connection with their country, they may move to find one that they feel closer too. Once found, they may support the country over others, defend it within conversations of politics or just find groups that have the same ideals they do about the country. This papers purpose is to illustrate the pros of nationalism as well as its cons.
The aim of this essay is to explore the idea of whether the National Front in France is a racist party. The French National Front or the Front National (FN) was founded in 1972 and is a nationalist, socially conservative and economically protectionist party. The party was led by Jean-Marie Le Pen until his resignation in 2011 and is now under the leadership of his daughter Marine Le Pen. Traditionally, the National Front has been seen by many in France as the only legitimate alternative to the established but corrupt mainstream political parties (Girling, 1998: 168). For this reason, it tends to attract protest voters, fed-up traditionalists and the socially and economically deprived (Girling, 1998: 168). Whilst the National Front attracts a variety of supporters, it has been argued that racism fuels a great deal of the party’s political policies and stance. Racism ‘provides the sharpest focus for popular fear and anger’ through blaming France’s minority Muslim Arab and black African populations for the current crisis in civil society (Girling, 1998: 168). These prejudices have been exacerbated by fears and anxiety over immigration, traditionalism and a resentment of foreigners. As is the case in many European nations, it is felt that immigrants to France are ‘taking away our jobs’ and ‘living at the expense of the French’ (Girling, 1998: 168). However, the National Front has gone under something of an image overhaul in recent years since the appointment of Marine Le Pen as leader in 2011. This ‘de-demonization’ strategy, which has served to increase the party’s popularity through softening its image and making its policies on immigration and so forth appear more acceptable to the mainstream (Mayer, 2013: 160). For these reasons, ...
These horrors caused by nationalism seem to be at the opposite end of the spectrum from the promising ideal of democracy. As Ghia Nodia pointed out, many analysts view nationalism as “fundamentally antidemocratic” (3). What these anti-nationalists fail to realize is that nationalism has also called force heroism and even sacrifice throughout history. Numerous people have risked their lives to restore democracy and civil rights in their nations, when they could easily have chosen comfortable exile elsewhere. Indeed, nationalism is the very basis of democratic government because it unites the citizens as “we the people”, supports the common political destiny, and nurtures trust toward the government.
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In the past, the French government focused specifically on outlawing racism with the French Constitution and the Penal Code of 1994. Both of these documents are described by the United Nations as “a veritable battery of legislation against any racially discriminatory act or practice” (Criminalization of Racist Acts, 1999). These government measures seek to prevent the spread of racism by forbidding blatant displays of xenophobia. While these laws are a step in the right direction to preventing widespread racism, the government has also fallen short by claiming there are no minorities in France. In fact, France is the only nation on the Council of Europe that has refused to sign the “Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities” and according to the World Directory of Minorities, France has the worst record in terms of rights to minorities (“World Directory of Minorities”). By refusing to admit that there are minorities in France that need protection, the government has left many immigrant groups behind.
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...derately nationalist platforms control over half of the popular vote. On the other hand, Islamic parties saw a sharp decline in public support from approximately 40percent in 2004 to less than one quarter this year.