Understanding the Cohesion of Populist Parties in the EU Parliament

• In Event: (European) Parliament Funkadelic

Abstract

Recent literature has argued that populist far-right parties at the European level are still too fragmented, both ideologically and organizationally, to cooperate and accomplish common policy goals in the EU. In this paper, we focus on Eurosceptic party preferences and actions in the European Parliament (EP). We ask whether populist far-right parties have become more ideolo gically cohesive in recent EP elections. In order to unpack policy making, we first have to identify Eurosceptic party policy goals. To do so, we collect and analyze European Union Party Group manifestos, populist far-right party manifestos, and speeches from party leaders. These texts allow us to explore ideological and policy cohesion across populist far-right parties. Our research will be focused around the last two EP elections which occurred in 2014 and 2019, when populist far-right parties gained significantly more representation. Adding in the element of time will allow us to check for party policy evolution. Is there evidence that far-right populist parties become more ideologically cohesive over time? If Eurosceptic parties can cooperate in the EU, they may constrain EU action aimed at stopping authoritarian spread, which may lead to more democratic backsliding in EU member states.

Authors

• Kari Waters, Syracuse University

• Seth Jolly, Syracuse University