National Past and Populism: The Re-Elaboration of Fascism and Its Impact on Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe

The paper argues that the electoral performance of right-wing populism depends on the type of re-elaboration of countries’ national past and their collective memories. Going beyond socio-economic and political-institutional factors, the paper analyzes cultural opportunity structures. Given the link between fascist and populist visions of power, the paper shows that national collective memories and the re-elaboration of the fascist past and World War II from the 1960s onwards may open up or close down the space for right-wing populist parties. Theoretically, the paper develops a typology with four types of re-elaboration: culpabilization, victimization, heroization and cancellation. Results of a comparative analysis of eight West European countries based on novel measurement method point to (1) culpabilization and heroization as types of re-elaboration limiting right-wing populist parties’ electoral performance, (2) cancellation as a type having an undetermined effect, and (3) victimization as a type triggering the success of right-wing populist parties.