Paper Proposal: Iberian Populism: The Legacy of Authoritarian Regimes in Comparative Perspective

In 2019, Vox has become the third most voted party, while Chega in Portugal managed to elect only one Member of Parliament. The two countries have had a very similar historical and political trajectory that resulted in a process of democratization in the mid-1970s after decades of right-wing authoritarian regimes. Until very recently, both countries were exceptions, or negative cases, because radical right-wing populist (RRWP) parties did not manage to obtain significant electoral results. However, after the last elections it seems that the pattern followed by the two countries could diverge. This paper seeks to explain this divergence. This difference can traced back to two aspects: the different types of transition to democracy that the two countries experienced, and the political system in which the two parties compete. Concerning the transition to democracy, Portugal emerged transformed after eighteen months of revolutionary process that shifted the political competition to the left, while the negotiated rupture in Spain de-politicized and silenced the memory of the authoritarian past. Concerning the two different political systems, Portugal is a highly centralized state while in Spain a highly salient centre-perihpery cleavage favors parties against the Catalan secession such as Vox.