Why Stay? The Role of Collective Efficacy in Populist Radical Right Party Activism

This paper provides an account of the lived experiences of active populist radical right (PRR) party members, based on interviews with active members of the League for Salvini Premier (Italy), the Vlaams Belang (Belgium), the Finns Party (Finland), and the Swiss People’s Party/Democratic Union of the Centre (Switzerland). It asks what motivated them to join and then stay in these parties. In line with findings in extant literature, members were typically motivated to join the party by ‘purposive’ incentives: hoping to shape society to their ideological preferences. Yet our study finds that many members subsequently became aware that their individual influence on the party’s course and management was limited, and many cited the negative effects of stigmatisation associated with PRRP membership. Responding to calls to offer a dynamic account of party membership, the study seeks to reveal what motivates members to stay after initially joining their parties, despite apparent disadvantages and social costs. Our data show that interviewees typically felt that party membership provided valuable communitarian bonds and a way of being part of an efficacious movement that represented their values and beliefs, denoting a collective form of efficacy next to an individual one.