The Impact of Radical Right Populist Local Governments on Urban Security

The distinctive mode of urban governance resulting from the election of mayors of radical right populist parties (RRPP), and their influence on the city, is a critical, yet under explored topic. This paper investigates urban governments led by RRPP in Wels, Austria and Padua, Italy, and how these different contexts influence their security rhetoric and policy and the degree to which they produce a ‘right turn’ to urban politics. Intensifying law and order is a fundamental concern of such parties and is shown to be prioritised when holding positions of local power. The study further reveals how its implementation varies depending upon national and sub-national contextual factors, joining together structural, cultural and rational actor approaches to empirically analyse how varying levels of autonomy and legitimacy affect the influence the RRPP have on sub-national policy-making. The methods in the study used are predominantly document analysis and semi-structured interviews with experts and political actors, alongside quantitative analysis of budgetary changes to verify findings. To capture the multi-faceted nature of the urban regimes, all constitutive parts of the institutional base are analysed. Firm methodological guidelines, including the selection of interviewees, enable comparability with future applications of the methodology. I hypothesise a relationship between, on the one hand, the combination of varying degrees of autonomy and legitimacy offered to the RRPP and, on the other, their influence on the security policy outcomes, as shown by an evaluation of its ideological content. This study could bring new insights to debates about the influence of RRPP on policy-making, with its focus on the policy making process regarding the core issue of law and order at the sub-national level. Furthermore, distinctive and significant change observed due to a radically ideologically different government (re-)asserts the importance of formal governmental institutions within the field of urban governance.