Globalization and the transformation of the national political space: Six European countries compared

Kriesi, Grande, Lachat, Dolezal, Bornschier, Frey (2006)

Comparative Politics:Party systems

Immobilisim and Change in the political space

Globalization/Denationalization

New structural conflict:Winners Vs Losers

Mobilization

Transformation of the national political space+

Strategic repositioning of parties

General dynamics

The analysis is based on four assumptions

• political reactions to economic and cultural globalization mainly manifest at the national level

• increasing economic, cultural, and political competition creates new winners & losers

• winners & loser of globalization constitute political potentials

• the political importance of national boundaries increases with their lowering and unbundling

The new cleavageintegration Vs demarcation

Expectations

Losers support:- protectionists measures- maintenance of national boundaries- independence

Winners support:- opening up of national boundaries- international integration

Transformation of the political space

Classic cleavagescentre - periphery

religionrural - urban

owner - worker

Culture (religion)

Socio-economic (class)

New structural conflicts 60’s

Mobilization forcultural liberalism

andsocial justice

Transformationof

the cultural dimension

No new dimension but change of meaning of the existing

dimensions (cultural and socio-economic)

Transformation of the political space

Embedding hypothesis

Kriesi et al expect the new demarcation/integration conflict to be embedded into the two dimensional basic

structure that emerged under the impact of the mobilization by new social movementsSOCIO-ECONOMIC DIMENSION

the new conflict should reinforce the opposition btwn a pro-state and a pro-market position, and change its

meaning(pro-state more defensive and protectionist pro-market in

favour enhancement of competitiveness)CULTURAL DIMENSIONenhanced opposition to cultural liberalism, defence of tradition takes on an ethnic or nationalist character,

new issues (EU, immigration)

Transformation of the political space

Not necessary to add new dimensions

Mainstream parties take up new preferences, identities, values and interests interpreting them in

their own specific ways

Repositioning and realigning

ADAPTIVE CAPACITY of existing parties

Positioning of parties in the transformed space: expected positions of major parties

Positioning of parties in the transformed space: first hypothesis

Mainstream parties will tend to formulate a winners programme (further economic and

cultural integration), but:

- parties on the left will try to combine economic integration with high level of welfare state;

- parties on the right will tend to reduce the role of the state in every respect

Positioning of parties in the transformed space: variations on the general theme

Leftist dilemma: market integration in EU threats national social achievements

position will vary on the economic dimension

Rightist dilemma: endorse liberalization, but nationalist and opposed to the opening up of

bordersposition will vary on the cultural dimension

Liberals: the opening up of borders doesn’t seem much problematic for them

•an intensification of political conflicts within mainstream parties as they attempt to redefine ideological preferences

• increasing political fragmentation with the strenghtening of peripheral political actors that adopt a losers programme

Positioning of parties in the transformed space:

two hypotheses based on empirical observations

Positioning of parties in the transformed space

The parties that most successfully appeal to the interests and fears of the losers of globalization are the driving

force of party systems transformation

Right-wing populist parties have been able to formulate a highly attractive ideological package for losers of economic transformations and cultural diversity

The smaller common denominator for losers’ mobilization are the defence of their national

identity/community [cultural side]

Positioning of parties in the transformed space

The mobilization by the populist right challenges established parties both on the left

and on the right

The challenge of a successful right-wing populist party is likely to reinforce the relative importance of the cultural dimension, and it is likely to move the centre of gravity of partisan

competition in the direction of cultural demarcation/protection

Research design

Six European countries:Austria, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands,

Switzerland

Focus on national elections:three between 90s and 2000s

one from 70s (point of reference)

• the macro-historical structural change linked to globalization is articulated by the issue-specific positions taken by parties during electoral campaigns and by the salience they attribute to the different issues

• the most appriopriate way to analyse the positioning of parties and the way in which deal with the new issues linked to globalization is to focus on the political debate during electoral campaigns, as reflected by mass-media

Research design - Assumptions

Austria: Greens, Social Democrats (SPO), Liberals (Liberales Forum), Christian Democrats (OVP), Populist right (FPO)

Britain: Social Democrats (Labour), Liberals (Liberal Democrats), Conservatives

France: Radical Left (PCF, Trotskyist parties), Greens, Social Democrats (PSF), the MRG, Conservatives (RPR), Liberals (UDF), Populist right (FN)

Germany: Radical Left (PDS), Greens, Social Democrats (SPD), Liberals (FDP), Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU)

Netherlands: Greens, Social Democrats (PvdA), Christian Democrats (CDA), Liberals (D66, VVD), Populist Right (LPF)

Switzerland: Greens, Social Democrats (SP), Christian Democrats (CVP and other minor centre parties), Liberals (FDP and LPS), Populist Right (SVP and small parties of the New Radical Right)

Research design - Political actors

• Welfare

• Budget

• Economic Liberalism

• Cultural Liberalism

• Europe

• Culture

Research design - Political issues

• Immigration

• Army

• Security

• Environment

• Institutional Reform

• Infrastructure

Research design

The data offer valuable information on two central aspects of the supply side of electoral

competition:

the positions of political parties on the issues;the salience of these issues for a given party

They construct a graphical representation of parties’ and issues’ positions in a low-dimensional

space using MDS

•changes over time in the strenght of political parties do not necessarily result from a change in the cleavage structure

•the emergence of new players on the electoral scene or a radical transformation of some established parties constitute first symptoms of the expected transformation of the cleavage structure

Results: general observations

Results: general observations

•on the horizontal dimension, in all countries there is strong opposition between support for the welfare state and support for economic liberalism; the traditional economic conflict remains salient

• the vertical dimension shows a cultural opposition in each country; by the 90’s the cultural conflict is typically expressed by the strong opposition between support for cultural liberalism, and support for a more restrictive immigration policy

Results: general observations

Results: Germany

Results: Austria

Results: Switzerland

Results: the Netherlands

Results: France

Results: Britain

•two dimensionality (economy & culture)

•transformation of the cultural dimension (EU integration & immigration)

•both dimensions are polarizing, the cultural gained importance

•common feature: tripolarism

Conclusions