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