Image of Contagious Parties: Anti-Immigration Parties and Their Impact on Other Parties’ Immigration Stances in Contemporary Western Europe

Journal Articles

Contagious Parties: Anti-Immigration Parties and Their Impact on Other Parties’ Immigration Stances in Contemporary Western Europe

Anti-immigration parties have experienced electoral lift-off in most Western democracies, although the consequences of their victories for real-life policy outcomes have remained largely unexplored. A key question is: do electoral pressures from anti-immigration parties have a ‘contagion’ impact on other parties’ immigration policy positions? In this article, I argue and empirically demonstrate that this is the case. On the basis of a comparative-empirical study of 75 parties in 11 Western European countries, I conclude that this contagion effect involves entire party systems rather than the mainstream right only. In addition, I find that opposition parties are more vulnerable to this contagion effect than parties in government. The findings of this article imply that anti-immigration parties are able to influence policy output in their political systems without entering government.

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Detail Information
Series Title
Party Politics
Call Number
-
Publisher
: sage publisher.,
Collation
-
Language
English
ISBN/ISSN
13540688
Classification
-
Content Type
-
Media Type
-
Carrier Type
-
Edition
Vol. 16 no. 5, September 2010 .pp. 563-586
Subject(s)
Elections
Immigration
Western Europe
Anti-immigration parties
CONTAGIOUS PARTIES
Specific Detail Info
-
Statement of Responsibility
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