Externe Publikationen

How the rise of radical right parties drives a more restrictive immigration agenda: a study of 17 Western European countries between 1980 and 2010

Burni, Aline
Externe Publikationen (2019)

published on pex-network.com 01.08.2019

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Scholars have extensively studied the phenomenon of radical right parties in Europe. Mainly investigated have been the causes for their emergence and reasons behind their support, but less so the implications they have for democracies and, more specifically, for policy outcomes. In this blog post, I briefly discuss the main findings of my Ph.D. dissertation, which analyzes the extent to which radical right parties are important drivers of a more restrictive immigration agenda adopted by national governments in Western Europe. This is an interesting topic to address, because radical right parties have contributed to the politicization of the immigration issue and, by becoming stronger in elections, they have pushed mainstream parties to respond to their agenda. A lot has been speculated about how they represent a threat to democracies, so it is crucial to understand what the real implications of their rise are in terms of policy agenda, also in light of other factors influencing immigration policies.