Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-44mx8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-22T02:01:02.544Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How Do Mainstream Parties ‘Become’ Mainstream, and Pariah Parties ‘Become’ Pariahs? Conceptualizing the Processes of Mainstreaming and Pariahing in the Labelling of Political Parties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2021

Benjamin Moffitt Open the ORCID record for Benjamin Moffitt [Opens in a new window]
Benjamin Moffitt*
Affiliation:
National School of Arts, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How does a political party become ‘mainstream’? And what makes some parties receive arguably the opposite designation – ‘pariah party’? This conceptual article examines the processes by which parties’ mainstream or pariah status must be constructed, negotiated and policed, not only by political scientists in the pursuit of case selection, but by several actors actively involved in the political process, including media actors and political parties themselves. It explains how these actors contribute to these processes of ‘mainstreaming’ and ‘pariahing’, considers their motivations and provides illustrative examples of how such processes take place. As such, the article moves beyond the literature on the ways in which mainstream parties seek to deal with or respond to threats from a variety of pariah parties, instead paying attention to how those parties have been constructed as pariahs in the first place, and how these processes simultaneously contribute to the maintenance of mainstream party identities.

Keywords

political partiesmainstream partiespariah partiesparty typesmediamainstreaming
Type
Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , July 2022 , pp. 385 - 403
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Government and Opposition Limited

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abedi, A (2004) Anti-Political Establishment Parties: A Comparative Analysis. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, J et al. (2006) Are Niche Parties Fundamentally Different from Mainstream Parties? The Causes and the Electoral Consequences of Western European Parties' Policy Shifts, 1976–1998. American Journal of Political Science 50(3), 513–529. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00199.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akkerman, T, de Lange, SL and Rooduijn, M (2016a) Inclusion and Mainstreaming? Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties into the New Millennium. In Akkerman T, de Lange SL and Rooduijn M (eds), Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe: Into the Mainstream? Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akkerman, T, de Lange, SL and Rooduijn, M (2016b) Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe: Into the Mainstream? Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Australia Senate (2003) Committees, Procedure Committee. 28 October, 16998–17002.Google Scholar
Bale, T (2003) Cinderella and her Ugly Sisters: The Mainstream and Extreme Right in Europe's Bipolarising Party Systems. West European Politics 26(3), 67–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380312331280598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batory, A (2016) Populists in Government? Hungary's ‘System of National Cooperation’. Democratization 23(2), 283–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bickerton, CJ and Accetti, CI (2018) ‘Techno-populism’ as a New Party Family: The Case of the Five Star Movement and Podemos. Contemporary Italian Politics 10(2), 132–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2018.1472919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blenkin, M (2004) Anderson Sees Red over ‘Watermelon’ Greens. The Age, 7 September. www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/06/1094322715096.html.Google Scholar
Cammaerts, B, DeCillia, B and Magalhães, JC (2017) Journalistic Transgressions in the Representation of Jeremy Corbyn: From Watchdog to Attackdog. Journalism 21(2), 191–208. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1464884917734055.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capoccia, G (2002) Anti-System Parties: A Conceptual Reassessment. Journal of Theoretical Politics 14(1), 9–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/095169280201400103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curran, G (2004) Mainstreaming Populist Discourse: The Race-Conscious Legacy of Neo-populist Parties in Australia and Italy. Patterns of Prejudice 38(1), 37–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/0031322032000185578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Jonge, L (2018) The Populist Radical Right and the Media in the Benelux: Friend or Foe? International Journal of Press/Politics 24(2), 189–209. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161218821098.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Jonge, L (2020) The Curious Case of Belgium: Why is There no Right-Wing Populism in Wallonia? Government and Opposition: An International Journal of Comparative Politics, published early online, May, https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2020.8.Google Scholar
De Vries, CE and Edwards, EE (2009) Taking Europe to its Extremes: Extremist Parties and Public Euroscepticism. Party Politics 15(1), 5–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068808097889.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vries, CE and Hobolt, SB (2020) Political Entrepreneurs: The Rise of Challenger Parties in Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Downs, WM (2001) Pariahs in their Midst: Belgian and Norwegian Parties react to Extremist Threats. West European Politics 24(3), 23–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380108425451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, WM (2012) Political Extremism in Democracies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredman, N (2013) Watermelons or Tomatoes? Social Democracy, Class and the Australian Greens. Capitalism Nature Socialism 24(4), 86–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2013.845585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerring, J (2004) What Is a Case Study and What Is it Good For? American Political Science Review 98(2), 341–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2013.845585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geys, B, Heyndels, B and Vermeir, J (2006) Explaining the Formation of Minimal Coalitions: Anti-System Parties and Anti-Pact Rules. European Journal of Political Research 45(6), 957–984. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2006.00640.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guardino, M and Snyder, D (2012) The Tea Party and the Crisis of Neoliberalism: Mainstreaming New Right Populism in the Corporate News Media. New Political Science 34(4), 527–548. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393148.2012.729741.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunther, R and Diamond, L (2003) Species of Political Parties: A New Typology. Party Politics 9(2), 167–199. https://doi.org/10.1177/13540688030092003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hainsworth, P (2008) The Extreme Right in Western Europe. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haise, D (2012) Those Crazy Greens. Eureka Street, 24 July. www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/those-crazy-greens.Google Scholar
Heinisch, R, Habersack, F and Fallend, F (2021) Austria. In Albertazzi, D and Vampa, D (eds), Populism and New Patterns of Political Competition in Western Europe. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 73–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heinze, A-S (2018) Strategies of Mainstream Parties Towards their Right-Wing Populist Challengers: Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland in Comparison. West European Politics 41(2), 287–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2017.1389440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobolt, SB and Tilley, J (2016) Fleeing the Centre: The Rise of Challenger Parties in the Aftermath of the Euro Crisis. West European Politics 39(5), 971–991. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2016.1181871.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivaldi, G (2016) A New Course for the French Radical Right? The Front National and ‘De-demonisation’. In Akkerman, T, De Lange, SL and Rooduijn, M (eds), Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe: Into the Mainstream? Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 225–246.Google Scholar
Jackson, S (2016) The Australian Greens: From Activism to Australia's Third Party. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Kestel, L and Godmer, L (2004) Institutional Inclusion and Exclusion of Extreme Right Parties. In Eatwell, R and Mudde, C (eds), Western Democracies and the Extreme Right Challenge. London: Routledge, pp. 133–149.Google Scholar
Klein, O and Pirro, ALP (2020) Reverting Trajectories? UKIP's Organisational and Discursive Change after the Brexit Referendum. Information, Communication & Society, published early online, June. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1792532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laclau, E and Mouffe, C (1985) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Lipset, SM and Raab, E (1971) The Politics of Unreason: Right Wing Extremism in America, 1790–1970. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Meguid, BM (2005) Competition Between Unequals: The Role of Mainstream Party Strategy in Niche Party Success. American Political Science Review 99(3), 347–359. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055405051701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minkenberg, M (2013) From Pariah to Policy-Maker? The Radical Right in Europe, West and East: Between Margin and Mainstream. Journal of Contemporary European Studies 21(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2013.766473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miragliotta, N (2006) One Party, Two Traditions: Radicalism and Pragmatism in the Australian Greens. Australian Journal of Political Science 41(4), 585–596. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361140600959791.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miragliotta, N (2013) The Australian Greens: Carving out Space in a Two-Party System. Environmental Politics 22(5), 706–727. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2013.824172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitra, S (1988) The National Front in France: A Single-Issue Movement? West European Politics 11(2), 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402388808424681.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, B (2016) The Global Rise of Populism: Performance, Political Style, and Representation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Moffitt, B (2019) Populism and Media in Western Europe. In de la Torre, C (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Global Populism. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 235–248.Google Scholar
Morris, J (2018) Nigel Farage Quits UKIP over Party's ‘Obsession’ with Islam and Advisor Role for Tommy Robinson. Evening Standard, 4 December. www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/nigel-farage-quits-ukip-over-tommy-robinson-appointment-a4008401.html.Google Scholar
Mouffe, C (2013) Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Mudde, C (1999) The Single-Issue Party Thesis: Extreme Right Parties and the Immigration Issue. West European Politics 22(3), 182–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402389908425321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C (2002) Extremist Movements. In Heywood, P, Jones, E and Rhodes, E (eds), Developments in West European Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 135–148.Google Scholar
Mudde, C and Rovira Kaltwasser, C (2012) Populism and (Liberal) Democracy: A Framework for Analysis. In Mudde, C and Rovira Kaltwasser, C (eds), Populism in Europe and the Americas: Threat or Corrective for Democracy? New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C and Rovira Kaltwasser, C (2017) Populism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, J and Devine, D (2020) Does Media Coverage Drive Public Support for UKIP or Does Public Support for UKIP Drive Media Coverage? British Journal of Political Science 50(3), 893–910. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123418000145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborn, A (2015) UK Prime Minister David Cameron Tells UKIP Voters to ‘Come Home’. Sydney Morning Herald, 7 April. www.smh.com.au/world/uk-prime-minister-david-cameron-tells-ukip-voters-to-come-home-20150407-1mfo24.html.Google Scholar
Pauwels, T (2011) Explaining the Strange Decline of the Populist Radical Right Vlaams Belang in Belgium: The Impact of Permanent Opposition. Acta Politica 46(1), 60–82. https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2010.17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pirro, ALP (2018) The Polyvalent Populism of the 5 Star Movement. Journal of Contemporary European Studies 26(4), 443–458. https://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2018.1519484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pop-Eleches, G (2010) Throwing Out the Bums: Protest Voting and Unorthodox Parties after Communism. World Politics 62(2), 221–260. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0043887110000043.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, GB Jr (1986) Extremist Parties and Political Turmoil: Two Puzzles. American Journal of Political Science 30(2), 357–378. https://doi.org/10.2307/2111101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabinowitz, G and Macdonald, SE (1989) A Directional Theory of Issue Voting. American Political Science Review 83(1), 93–121. https://doi.org/10.2307/1956436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rooduijn, M, de Lange, SL and Van Der, Brug W (2014) A Populist Zeitgeist? Programmatic Contagion by Populist Parties in Western Europe. Party Politics 20(4), 563–575. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068811436065.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rovira Kaltwasser, C (2017) Populism and the Question of How to Deal with It. In Kaltwasser C, Rovira, Taggart, P, Ochoa Espejo, P and Ostiguy, P (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Populism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 489–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rydgren, J (2005) Is Extreme Right-Wing Populism Contagious? Explaining the Emergence of a New Party Family. European Journal of Political Research 44(3), 413–437. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2005.00233.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sartori, G (1976) Parties and Party Systems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schedler, A (1996) Anti-Political-Establishment Parties. Party Politics 2(3), 291–312. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1354068896002003001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, F (2020) Party Populism and Media Access: The News Value of Populist Communication and How It Is Handled by the Mass Media. International Journal of Communication 14, 2360–2382. https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.147161.Google Scholar
Seawright, J and Gerring, J (2008) Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research: A Menu of Qualitative and Quantitative Options. Political Research Quarterly 61(2), 294–308. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1065912907313077.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stake, RE (1995) The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Google Scholar
Strömbäck, J and Van Aelst, P (2013) Why Political Parties Adapt to the Media: Exploring the Fourth Dimension of Mediatization. International Communication Gazette 75(4), 341–358. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1748048513482266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Surel, Y (2019) How to Stay Populist? The Front National and the Changing French Party System. West European Politics 42(6), 1230–1257. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2019.1596693.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, R (2006) Cameron Refuses to Apologise to UKIP. Guardian, 4 April. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/apr/04/conservatives.ukGoogle Scholar
Van Heerden, SC and Van Der Brug, W (2017) Demonisation and Electoral Support for Populist Radical Right Parties: A Temporary Effect. Electoral Studies 47, 36–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2017.04.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Kessel, S (2014) The Populist Cat-Dog: Applying the Concept of Populism to Contemporary European Party Systems. Journal of Political Ideologies 19(1), 99–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2013.869457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Spanje, J (2010) Parties Beyond the Pale: Why Some Political Parties Are Ostracized by their Competitors while Others Are Not. Comparative European Politics 8(3), 354–383. https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2009.2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Spanje, J (2018) Controlling the Electoral Marketplace: How Established Parties Ward Off Competition. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Spanje, J and Azrout, R (2018) Tainted Love: How Stigmatization of a Political Party in News Media Reduces its Electoral Support. International Journal of Public Opinion Research 31(2), 283–308. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edy009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Spanje, J and Van Der Brug, W (2007) The Party as Pariah: The Exclusion of Anti-Immigration Parties and its Effect on their Ideological Positions. West European Politics 30(5), 1022–1040. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380701617431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Spanje, J and Van Der Brug, W (2009) Being Intolerant of the Intolerant: The Exclusion of Western European Anti-Immigration Parties and its Consequences for Party Choice. Acta Politica 44(4), 353–384. https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2009.7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vittori, D (2017) Podemos and the Five-Star Movement: Populist, Nationalist or What? Contemporary Italian Politics 9(2), 142–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2017.1339935.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, M (2012) Defining and Measuring Niche Parties. Party Politics 18(6), 845–864. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1354068810393267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wax, E, Neslen, A and Kayali, L (2019) Parliament Groups Vow to Stop Far-Right MEPs Chairing Committees, Politico, 7 October. www.politico.eu/article/parliament-groups-vow-to-stop-far-right-meps-chairing-committees/.Google Scholar
Zulianello, M (2018) Anti-System Parties Revisited: Concept Formation and Guidelines for Empirical Research. Government and Opposition: An International Journal of Comparative Politics 53(4), 653–681. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2017.12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar