Walking Away from the Wild Side? Radical Right Parties and Policy Moderation in Western Europe, 1990-2010

Radical right parties are niche parties. Policy moderation is not a very viable option when niche parties are vote-seeking. Policy moderation tends to depress the electoral gains of niche parties. However, radical right parties are not only vote-seeking, but they are also sometimes office-seeking parties. As potential coalition partners of mainstream right parties, they will have to show some ideological flexibility. This paper explores whether office-seeking incites these parties to moderate their policy agendas. The trade-off between votes and office can be avoided when radical right parties demonstrate ideological rigidity with respect to the core issues immigration and integration, but are flexible in non-niche policy domains. CMP data for non-niche policy domains and my own dataset for immigration and integration policy agendas will be used to assess this thesis.