1 - The Mainstream Right in Western Europe: Caught between the Silent Revolution and Silent Counter-Revolution

Summary

In spite of their scope and significance, the challenges faced by mainstream parties on the right of the political spectrum continue to garner far less attention than those encountered by their mainstream left rivals and those posed by parties of the far right. This chapter discusses those challenges. It begins by trying to bring some conceptual clarity and to offer working definitions of both the mainstream right and the far right in Western Europe. It then outlines our argument that mainstream right parties in Western Europe experience a tension between, on the one hand, adapting to segments of the electorate that express the liberal and progressive values of the so-called ‘silent revolution’ and, on the other hand, representing voters who sympathize with the arguably authoritarian and nativist ideas associated with the so-called ‘silent counter-revolution’. This tension, we argue, presents mainstream right parties with particular policy and political challenges when it comes to European integration, immigration, moral issues and welfare. Having introduced the topic, and our take on it, the chapter ends by presenting a short summary of each of the contributions to come.