"The New Politics of Resentment", Hans-George BETZ (1993): Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe

Résumé du document

Professor at the department of political science at the University of Geneva, Hans-George Betz is an eminent social scientist who works on the extreme right and populist parties in Western Europe. The article under study is entitled The New Politics of resentment: Radical Right-Wing Parties in Western Europe and dated from 1993. During the past few years a radical populist right has emerged in a number of West European democracies. According to Betz, Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties are radical in their rejection of the current system, they are right-wing in appeal to xenophobia and they are populist in their instrumentalization of anxiety and disenchantment. Mixing xenophobia with a neoliberal economic program, radical right-wing populist parties have been increasingly successful at the polls. In his study, Betz aims at analysing the reasons of such significant gains at the polls by using explanatory models. Does the rise of the radical populists reflect temporary resentment and single issue protest or does it represent a response to structural problems of advanced western democracies? According to the author, radical right-wing populist parties' success can be explained partly in terms of a protest against immigration from third world countries and the established political parties and partly as the result of the profound social and cultural transformation of advanced western democracies. First, it will be worth analysing the mobilization of protest and resentment by the right-wing populists. Then, I will focus on their ability to offer programs that confront the challenge linked to economic, social and cultural transformation of advanced West European democracies. Social changes are used as tools which serve their radical right-wing discourses.

Extraits

[...] Advanced Western democracies are characterized by a new production regime which enables the fragmentation of taste cultures and the individualization of life styles. The second part of the 20th century is the time for the emergence of subcultural identities. This phenomenon gave rise to a new system of social diversification and stratification. The Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties represent a materialist reaction to these changes. Whereas the left libertarian parties, they promote a return to traditional moral values and old politics like order and tough laws. They react against change and they pretend to protect spiritual, moral and cultural values. [...]

[...] Their aim is to reduce at maximum the role of the state in the economical field in order to promote initiative and entrepreneurship. Medium sized-enterprises are supposed to play a central role in their conception of the society. At the same time, these parties want to eliminate impede competitiveness. Betz speaks about as an ideology which might be characterized as "neo-isolationism in a future fortress Europe". As we have seen, Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties manage to combine resentment against foreigners and especially Third World countries immigrants with a liberal position on economy. [...]

[...] The profound social and cultural transformation of advanced western democracies 1 The increasing social and cultural fragmentation 1 The emergence of "two-thirds societies" The post-industrial societies in which Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties are developing are a particularly good context for them to broadcast their ideology. Indeed, the current society has shift from mass production to highly specialized manufacturing systems supervised by a highly skilled labour force and from the secondary sector to the tertiary sector. Obviously, this phenomenon is characterized by the expansion of highly qualified jobs which require a high level of education with specific knowledge especially in research and development. [...]

[...] The mobilization of protest and resentment The 1980's are a landmark for the beginning of the impressive rise of the Radical Right-Wing Parties. It was the beginning of the disenchantment with the State institutions; a profound distrust in their workings arose and the political fragmentation especially of the left and the electoral volatility increased. In this context, Radical Populist Parties began to emerge The revival of a new racism 1 Protest against immigration from Third World countries: xenophobia At the time of the publication of the article (in 1993), Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties have been able to gain the polls. [...]

[...] This result seems to illustrate a global situation in Western Europe. Indeed, the Italian Lega Lombarda founded in the early 1980's by Umberto Bossi achieved of the votes at the national scale in 1992. In France, the Front National founded in 1972 by Jean Marie Le Pen started from scratch in the general elections in 1981 but reached of the votes for the general elections in 1988. The situation was similar in Switzerland with the Autopartei, in Belgium with the Vlaams Blok, in Germany with the Republikaner and even in the Scandinavian countries where the radical right-wing presence was prominent. [...]