The Radicalized Mainstream? The Impact of the Far Right on Mainstream Parties’ Support for liberal democracy

Liberal democracy is facing serious challenges across the globe, illustrated by a concerning decline in the quality of liberal democracy in many parts of the world, including Western European countries. The erosion of democratic quality is often driven by far-right parties in power, that politicize liberal-democratic principles and mobilize against liberal values and ideas. However, even when in opposition, far-right parties exert indirect influence through their impact on mainstream parties. Particularly centre-right, but also centre-left parties have co-opted far-right ideas and frames, as demonstrated for issues such as migration, Euroscepticism or welfare chauvinism. However, we are still missing a comprehensive assessment of mainstream parties’ radicalization through the general embracement of illiberal ideas, going beyond particular policy areas. To address this important issue, I explore if and how European mainstream parties adjust their commitment towards liberal democracy in response to the success of the far right and become more illiberal. Methodologically, I make use of quantitative text analysis to investigate mainstream party discourse in three countries: Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands. Those cases cover not only important countries in Western Europe where mainstream party radicalization has not been studied extensively yet, but also three different degrees of far-right party institutionalization: far-right parties have never been in government in Germany, whereas they have a long history of (junior) coalition participation in Austria. In the Netherlands, far-right parties have until recently only provided support to minority governments but have re-entered government in 2024. With this research, I aim to shed light to the conditions of mainstream party radicalization following far-right success and contribute to a better understanding of democratic erosion in general.