Based on a constructivist approach, this book offers a comparative analysis into the causes of nationalist populist politics in each of the five Nordic independent nation states. Behind the social liberal façade of the economically successful, welfare-orientated Nordic states, right-wing populism has found support in the region. Such parties emerged first in Denmark and Norway in the 1970s, before becoming prominent in Sweden and Finland after the turn of the millennium and in Iceland in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, when populist parties surged throughout the Nordics. The author traces these Nationalist trails of thoughts back to the National Socialistic movements of the 1920s and 1930s (the respective Nordic version Nazi parties) and before, to the birth of the Nordic nation states in the nineteenth century following the failure of integration. Since then, as the book argues, separate nationalisms have grown strong in each of the countries. This study will appeal to students and scholars as well as wider audiences interested in European Politics, Nordic Politics, Nationalism, and Populism.

During the last 15-20 years a new party family of radical right-wing populism (RRP) has emerged in Western Europe, consisting of parties such as the French Front National and the Austrian Freedom's Party, among many others. Contrary to the situation in the other Scandinavian countries, such parties have been largely unsuccessful in Sweden. Although Sweden saw the emergence of the populist party New Democracy - which partly can be classified as a RRP party - in the early 1990s, it collapsed in 1994, and no party has so far been successful enough to take its place. Most of the literature on populism and right-wing extremism deals with successful cases; this book takes the opposite direction and asks how one can explain the failure of Swedish radical right-wing populism.

The last two decades have seen the emergence of new radical right-wing populist parties in Western democracies. The electoral breakthrough of the French Front National in 1984 was the starting point for the rise of parties combining anti-establishment populism and anti-immigrant politics based on ethno-nationalist ideology, and today radical right-wing populist parties are well represented in national politics in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and the Netherlands in Western Europe, as well as in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. By bringing together some of the foremost experts within this area of research, this book gives a comprehensive image of different aspects of radical right-wing populism: its causes, ideology, and impact.

This edited volume examines populist radical right parties in the Nordic region. Somewhat surprisingly given the image of a consensual, egalitarian, and progressive region of Europe, the Nordic countries have been fertile ground for the radical right. Not only have radical right parties persisted for many decades, but they are currently much stronger in this region than in most other European countries today. In this book, the contributors analyse the electoral, ideological, and organisational aspects of the radical right in the Nordic region: The Progress Party in Norway (Fremskrittspartiet, FrP), the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna, SD), Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti, DF), and the Finns party (Perussuomalaiset, PS). It also explores how mainstream parties and the media have reacted to the rise of the radical right, whether the radical right is integrated into mainstream politics, the extent to which they challenge the dominant ideological paradigm of Nordic politics and whether they mobilise and organise differently to other parties. Understanding the Nordic radical right is crucial to comprehending the transformation of Nordic politics but also changes in European politics more generally. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Scandinavian politics, populism, the radical right, and comparative party politics.

The results of the last European Elections of 2014 confirmed the rise of right and far right 'populist' parties across the EU. The success of a range of parties, such as Denmark’s Dansk Folskeparti, Slovenia’s Slovenska demokratska stranka, France’s Front National, Greece’s Golden Dawn, the United Kingdom Independence Party, Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement in Italy and the Austrian FPÖ, has been perceived as a political wave which is transforming the face of the European Parliament, and challenging at some level the hegemony of the 'big four' well-established European political forces that lead the Strasbourg’s assembly: the ALDE, EPP, S&D and Greens/ALE. As 'populism' has become a major issue in many EU countries, this collection aims to provide a critical understanding of related trends and recommend ways in which they can be challenged both in policy and praxis, by using the gender-race-ethnicity-sexual orientation intersectionality approach. This international volume combines extensive transnational comparative data analysis, as well as research at discursive, attitudinal and behavioural levels.

In Scandinavia, there is separation in the electorate between those who embrace diversity and those who wish for tighter bonds between people and nation. This book focuses on three nationalist populist parties in Scandinavia—the Sweden Democrats, the Progress Party in Norway, and the Danish People’s Party. In order to affect domestic politics by addressing this conflict of diversity versus homogeneity, these parties must enter the national parliament while earning the nation’s trust. Of the three, the Sweden Democrats have yet to earn the trust of the mainstream, leading to polarized and emotionally driven public debate that raises the question of national identity and what is understood as the common man.

While research in right-wing populism has recently been blossoming, a systematic study of the intersection of right-wing populism and gender is still missing, even though gender issues are ubiquitous in discourses of the radical right ranging from »ethnosexism« against immigrants, to »anti-genderism.« This volume shows that the intersectionality of gender, race and class is constitutional for radical right discourse. From different European perspectives, the contributions investigate the ways in which gender is used as a meta-language, strategic tool and »affective bridge« for ordering and hierarchizing political objectives in the discourse of the diverse actors of the »right-wing complex.«