Commissioned Book Review: Daniele Albertazzi and Davide Vampa, Populism and New Patterns of Political Competition in Western Europe
| Published date | 01 May 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/14789299211007984 |
| Date | 01 May 2022 |
| Author | Stephanie Luke |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Review |
Political Studies Review
2022, Vol. 20(2) NP11 –NP12
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
1007984PSW0010.1177/14789299211007984Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
book-review2021
Commissioned Book Review
Populism and New Patterns of Political
Competition in Western Europe Edited
by Daniele Albertazzi and Davide Vampa,
Oxon: Routledge, 2021. 314pp., £34.99, ISBN
9781138367456
In their new edited collection, Populism and
New Patterns of Political Competition in
Western Europe, Albertazzi and Vampa apply
an adapted typology of party competition to
analyse the responses of non-populists parties
to the emergence and success of populist par-
ties, as well as the responses of populists parties
to other populists. Building on existing litera-
ture it defines populism according to Cas
Mudde’s definition (2007), as ‘A thin centred
ideology that considers society to be separated
into ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’.
While populism may be referred to in the publi-
cation’s title, it does not feature as the primary
scope of interest, rather it is used to overcome
the issues associated with identifying parties as
‘mainstream’ and ‘challenger’. Furthermore,
the book’s title also refers to ‘New Patterns of
Political Competition’, but they are not neces-
sarily new ways in which parties compete, but
rather that this book incorporates them into a
new typology of party competition.
By evaluating how parties react to each
other, the editors and their contributors seek to
apply a novel typology of party competition.
The foundations of this typology seek to high-
light that it is becoming more difficult to apply
labels such as ‘mainstream’ and ‘challenger’ in
general terms to political parties. Thus, the book
focuses on the relationships and interactions
between populists and non-populists and/or the
interactions between competing populist par-
ties. The first section focuses on the novel typol-
ogy which builds upon the categories defined by
Meguid as dismissive, adversarial and accom-
modative, by expanding the application to any
actors within the system, and considering how
parties relate to each other as actors. Therefore,
not only is their understanding of co-optation
broader in that competition for votes and influ-
ence takes the form of ‘stealing’ each other’s
proposals or style, they also propose the adop-
tion of subcategories within the adversarial and
accommodative strategy.
The adversarial strategy is about Party A
presenting hostility to Party B’s policy stances,
the party itself or both, and further defined by
three subcategories clashing, marginalization
and co-optation. When clashing, Party A may
oppose Party B’s policy stances, and/or engag-
ing with arguments involving the character and
credibility of Party B. The second subcategory
refers to marginalization in which Party A mar-
ginalizes Party B through ostracizing it, silenc-
ing it through restrictions on public funding for
the party, and/or restricts its access to the media.
The final subcategory involves co-optation of a
party’s policies or style to try to occupy the
same political space of the competitor and
weaken it. These subcategories enable this
typology of party competition to recognize the
different responses within an adversarial strat-
egy. What does not appear to be addressed but
an important avenue for future research is
whether any of these subcategories are more
significant in terms of showcasing hostility, and
whether they have a greater effect on the elec-
toral success of populists.
The accommodative strategy is when Party
A looks for ways to work alongside Party B
and further outlines two subcategories, coop-
eration and fusion. Cooperation between
Party A and Party B entails joint action in the
legislative, governmental or electoral arenas,
as well as working together to remove a gov-
ernment. Whereas fusion concerns the rela-
tionship between actors which may follow
from cooperation to something which involves
the parties joining forces on a permanent basis.
In this sense, the case of Germany is interest-
ing given the CDU voted with the AfD in the
regional parliament of Thuringia, albeit unin-
tended, which resulted in outrage, rather than
cooperation as the fusion strategy lays out.
That being said, this typology is usefully
designed to be specific and all encompassing,
which helps to set up the following section of
the book.
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