Depleting Democracies: Radical Right Impact on Parties, Policies, and Polities in Eastern Europe(Global Studies of the Far Right)

Depleting democracies provides an analysis of the radical right’s interactions with mainstream parties and the effect they have on setting political agendas in sensitive areas such as minority policies and asylum regulations. It asks to what extent the radical right has changed the quality of democracy in Eastern Europe: does its electoral strength, its capacity for political blackmail and its coalition potential actually translate into impact? The book compares three groups of countries that are distinct in terms of the relevance of radical right parties: Bulgaria and Slovakia; Hungary, Poland and Romania; and the Czech Republic and Estonia. It follows a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative analysis of survey data with qualitative, comparative analysis of archival material and other texts to determine the causal role radical right parties play in influencing parties, policies and ultimately democratic quality in the seven countries. Depleting democracies advances theory on radical right actors in the political process and contributes to empirical research across the region. Its results are particularly relevant to the debate on democratic transformation and the effects of radical right parties.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 Conceptualizing the radical right and its impact: from politics to policies to polity 2 Cases and contexts: countries and parties, culture and politics 3 Position shifts: radical right impact on mainstream parties 4 Policy shifts: radical right impact on policies regarding minority and asylum issues 5 Polity shifts: the radical right and democratic quality in the region Conclusion Appendix Index

About the Author :
Michael Minkenberg is Professor of Comparative Politics at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) Zsuzsanna Vegh is a Researcher at the Chair of Comparative Politics at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)

Review :
CHOICE: Recommended 'The book's genuine contribution lies in a broad yet nuanced analysis of the democratic consequences of right-wing radical parties. While most studies in this area focus on one aspect, Minkenberg and Végh examine the effects of RRP [Radical Right Parties] at three different system levels. First, they show that the substantive positions of strong RRPs are permanently adopted by mainstream parties with programmatically close ties (position shifts). The authors then examine the level of policymaking. Here, too, they attest to RRPs' demonstrable influence on the decisions of incumbent governments in the areas of minority, asylum, and migration policy (policy shifts). Finally, they also establish a clear connection between the strength of right-wing radical parties and the decline in the quality of democracy, measured using V-Dem data (polity shift).' Von Florian Grotz, Jahrbuch Extremismus & Demokratie (Extremism & Democracy)