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date: 28 January 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter presents an introduction to different theories of party competition, as exemplified by the substantive puzzle of radical right-wing partisan rise. The first task, however, is to conceptualize radical right party fortunes within the context of competitive party systems. The next three sections discuss the initial rise of radical right parties through three lenses: spatial theories of party competition, institutional and historical mediators of current competitive opportunities for radical right entry, and non-spatial theories of party competition based on valence and issue ownership. This is followed by a report on research about the ongoing strategic interaction between radical right parties and their competitors after the former’s initial rise to electoral prowess. The chapter concludes with several general synthesizing hypotheses about the life cycle of political parties, with the radical right’s rise and possible future demise being a particular application.

Keywords: radical right, party competition, right-wing parties, competitive party system, political parties

Herbert Kitschelt

Herbert Kitschelt is the George V. Allen Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at Duke University. He specializes in political parties and elections and comparative political economy. He is a member of the American ↵Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). From 1993 to 1996, he also held a joint appointment with Humboldt University, Berlin. Among his many publications, he is author, coauthor or editor of The Transformation of European Social Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 1994), The Radical Right in Western Europe (University of Michigan Press, 1995), and Latin American Party Systems (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Most recently, he coedited The Politics of Advanced Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He is currently completing two research projects, one on democratic partisan linkage in competitive democracies around the world, based on the data collected under his direction by the Democratic Accountability and Linkage Project, and one on partisan realignment in postindustrial democracies, together with Philipp Rehm.

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