Commissioned Book Review: Benjamin Biard, Laurent Bernhard and Hans-Georg Betz (eds), Do They Make a Difference? The Policy Influence of Radical Right Populist Parties in Western Europe

AuthorLeonardo Puleo
Published date01 August 2021
Date01 August 2021
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/1478929920914535
Subject MatterCommissioned Book Reviews
Political Studies Review
2021, Vol. 19(3) NP7 –NP8
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
914535PSW0010.1177/1478929920914535Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
book-review2020
Commissioned Book Review
Do They Make a Difference? The Policy
Influence of Radical Right Populist Parties in
Western Europe by Benjamin Biard, Laurent
Bernhard and Hans-Georg Betz (eds).
London and New York: ECPR Press/Rowman &
Littlefield International, 2019. 297 pp., £ 60 (h/b),
ISBN 9781785523298
The literature on Radical Right Populist Parties
(RRPPs) explored in-depth those factors ena-
bling their success, deepening also on our knowl-
edge of the features characterizing this party
family. However, until recently, little attention
has been paid to the RRPPs’ impact on policies
and policy making. This very welcomed collec-
tive volume aims precisely to fill this gap, and it
questions whether RRPPs exercise a policy
influence on their core issues (e.g. migration, law
and order, welfare chauvinism). In doing so, the
volume contributes to the development of a bur-
geoning strand of literature that conceptualizes
RRPPs as an independent variable impacting
and affecting the Western European political sys-
tems. With this aim, the volume comprises 11
empirical chapters that employ both qualitative
and quantitative methods, examining carefully
the role played by the RRPPs’ government par-
ticipation through an accurate case selection.
In the first empirical chapter, Melisa Zobel
and Michael Minkenberg present a comparison
between the radical right’s policy influence on
migration issue in Denmark, a paradigmatic
case with a strong RRPP, and in Germany,
characterized until recently by weak radical
right actors. The authors show how even elec-
torally marginal radical right actors can push
mainstream parties to legitimize their positions
and framing on migration issue. The National
Front (FN) is the case of analysis in the next
chapter, as João Carvalho investigates, employ-
ing process-tracing, how FN growing electoral
threat led to its pervasive influence on immi-
gration policies during Hollande’s presidency.
Nathalie Blanc-Noël compares two similar
Nordic RRPPs: the Danish People’s Party (DF)
and the Finns Party (PS), revealing that a gov-
erning position does not inevitably increase the
likelihood of policy influence. Following a
similar focus, Flemming Christiansen, Mikkel
Bjerregaard and Jens Thomsen explore the tra-
jectory of DF and its shift from a pariah party
to a political insider, showing both its direct
influence on immigration policies when acting
as a support party and its mainly indirect influ-
ence when in opposition.
The sixth chapter discusses the case of
Northern League (LN) and its unique U-turn
from a regionalist to nationalist platform.
Cristophe Bouillaud, employing a detailed
historical narrative, acknowledges the LN’s
mostly symbolic influence on migration and
its pervasive impact on the regional fiscal
equilibria. In the following chapter, Fred
Paxton compares the policy influence of LN
and Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) in sub-
national governments, showing how these par-
ties increase – rather than simply react to – a
sense of insecurity that strengthens their pol-
icy influence.
Continuing with the eight chapter, Farid
Hafez and Reinhard Heinisch analyse how the
FPÖ’s influence on culture and migration
issues has been persistent, even when the party
was out of the cabinet. Benjamin Biard, in the
next chapter, compares the policy influence of
RRPPs on ‘foreigners’ criminality’ issue in
Switzerland, France and Belgium. Analysing
interviews and parties’ documents, the author
concludes that RRPPs can influence indirectly
the policy making, even when they are ostra-
cized by a formal cordon sanitaire.
The last three chapters of the volume turn to
a large-N quantitative analyses of the RRPPs’
contagion effect in Western Europe, measuring
also their direct impact on policy making.
Juliana Chueri focuses on welfare chauvinism
and shows how the participation in govern-
ment of RRPPs increases the likelihood of a
reduction of migrants’ welfare benefit. In the
same vein, George Wenzelburger and Pascal

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