0000000000246342
AUTHOR
Astrid Barrio
El feble arrelament del populisme a Espanya
Aquest article analitza les raons per les quals a Espanya no ha arrelat el populisme malgrat donar-se moltes de les condicions associades al sorgiment i creixement d’aquest corrent politic —una profunda crisi economica que es va iniciar l’any 2008 i una crisi politica vinculada als escandols de corrupcio que afectaven els principals partits del sistema. Al nostre pais l’extrema dreta tradicional es molt debil. A mes, no podem considerar els nous partits com Podemos o Ciudadanos com a populistes; i Vox, tot i que compleix tots els requisits d’un partit de dreta radical, es diferencia de la seua familia politica en el fet que no es populista. En aquest article s’argumenta que aquesta absencia…
Reducing the gap between leaders and voters? Elite polarization, outbidding competition, and the rise of secessionism in Catalonia
ABSTRACTThe ethnic outbidding thesis explains party polarization as a consequence of political changes amongst voters. We argued instead that party elites’ extreme position on the national identity cleavage can help polarizing strategies to prevail over moderate strategies in a context of increasing political uncertainty, without previous voters’ polarization. We test successfully this hypothesis in Catalonia by analysing the polarization of political parties and people’s demands for self-government in Catalonia since the early 2000s. We also find that the result of this outbidding pattern of competition was a reduction in the gap between elites’ and voters’ views on national identity. The …
VOX Spain: The Organisational Challenges of a New Radical Right Party
This article examines the organisation of VOX, a new radical right party in Spain. It shows that the party has taken early and uneven steps to build a mass organisation and initially opted for open membership recruitment with participatory organisational elements. Also, the party’s rapid growth and quick entrance into political institutions at different state levels led the party leadership to establish more centralised control and limit members’ prerogatives, though recruitment continued. Centralisation in part responds to organisational needs given the party’s quickly acquired political relevance, but also to the desire of the central party leadership to forestall the articulation of terr…
El populismo y la excepcionalidad española
The rise of populism in the Western world has become one of the most prominent political phenomena in recent times to such an extent that Western democracies without strong populisms have been more of an exception than a norm (Marzouki, McDonnel and Rey, 2016). Spain, despite fulfilling most of the conditions that are often associated with the emergence of populism and despite some frustrated attempts is a clear example of this exceptionality. This article explores the reasons why in Spain and despite not being immune to a certain populist contagion, populism has not been installed within the framework of national politics. The only space where populism seems to have settled has been in Cat…
The Weakness of Populism in Spain
This paper analyses why Populism has failed to take root in Spain despite a ‘soil’ that has favoured its seeding and growth elsewhere. At first sight, Spain seems to provide the conditions in which Populism can thrive: a deep economic crisis (which began with the financial meltdown in 2008) and a succession of corruption scandals affecting all the main political parties. Even so, Populism has failed to gain a hold in Spain. The traditional Far Right is very weak, and new parties such as Podemos and Ciudadanos cannot be considered Populist. While Vox displays all the features of a radical right-wing party, it is one from which Populism is absent. We argue that the lack of Populism in Spain c…
New parties’ linkages with external groups and civil society in Spain: A preliminary assessment
The aim of this article is to assess the linkages between the Spanish new parties with groups and civil society. After outlining a short framework on the new linkages between parties and external groups in times of social and political unrest and discussing the case selection, it brie y introduces the classic patterns of interaction between Spain's mainstream parties, the PP and the PSOE and the main interest groups since the late 1970s. Then, the paper analyses the emerging links of two new parties, Ciudadanos and Podemos, in order to provide a general assessment of the main di erences between their linkages and the ones of the traditional parties, and to discuss its possible implications …