Discounting Extreme Positions: Party Normalization and Support for the Far Right

• In Event: Historical Origins and Legacies of Conflict

Abstract

Are far right parties punished for their extreme issue positions? Under what conditions? We argue that the punishments of counter-normative position taking are conditional on the degree to which the far right is normalized or stigmatized in the party system. When the far right becomes normalized, costs suffered from these parties' extreme positions decrease, as moderate voters discount the party's authenticity. We use a survey experiment to test this argument in Spain, finding evidence for discounting on the far right's extreme LGBTQ statements, but not on its embrace of authoritarian history. These results reinforce the relevance of normalization and stigmatization in accounting for the appeal of far right parties in modern democracies while simultaneously calling attention to the different ways that issue positions are interpreted by potential voters.

Authors

• Laia Balcells, Georgetown University

• Ethan vanderWilden, University of Wisconsin - Madison