IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v59y2021i3p721-737.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

To Democratize or to Protect? How the Response to Anti‐System Parties Reshapes the EU's Transnational Party System

Author

Listed:
  • Ludvig Norman

Abstract

This article studies how efforts to democratize the European Union's (EU) decision‐making procedures are reshaped by the growing influence of anti‐system parties in Europe. This new political landscape exacerbates a fundamental democratic dilemma for the EU: to either open up, and further democratize its institutions or to work to protect those institutions from the influence of anti‐systemic actors. The article analyses how political elites engage with this dilemma by studying a process unfolding from 2010 to 2019 through which reforms to the EU's transnational party system were introduced. Building on extensive interview and debate data the analysis demonstrates that, while a democratizing logic informed early stages of the process, a protective logic gradually became dominant. The article goes on to discuss the possible implications of this shift for the continued democratization of the EU and identifies this dimension in EU politics as a pertinent field for further study.

Suggested Citation

  • Ludvig Norman, 2021. "To Democratize or to Protect? How the Response to Anti‐System Parties Reshapes the EU's Transnational Party System," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 721-737, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:59:y:2021:i:3:p:721-737
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13128
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13128
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13128?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abou-Chadi, Tarik & Krause, Werner, 2020. "The Causal Effect of Radical Right Success on Mainstream Parties’ Policy Positions: A Regression Discontinuity Approach," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(3), pages 829-847, July.
    2. Simon Hix & Amie Kreppel & Abdul Noury, 2003. "The Party System in the European Parliament: Collusive or Competitive?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 309-331, April.
    3. Amichai Magen, 2016. "Cracks in the Foundations: Understanding the Great Rule of Law Debate in the EU," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(5), pages 1050-1061, September.
    4. March, James G. & Olsen, Johan P., 1998. "The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 943-969, October.
    5. Peter Oliver & Justine Stefanelli, 2016. "Strengthening the Rule of Law in the EU: The Council's Inaction," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(5), pages 1075-1084, September.
    6. Peter John Oliver & Justine Stefanelli, 2016. "Strengthening the Rule of Law in the EU: The Council's Inaction," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/236622, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Abou-Chadi, Tarik & Krause, Werner, 2020. "The Causal Effect of Radical Right Success on Mainstream Parties’ Policy Positions: A Regression Discontinuity Approach," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 50(3), pages 829-847.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ludvig Norman & Wouter Wolfs, 2022. "Is the Governance of Europe's Transnational Party System Contributing to EU Democracy?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 463-479, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matti Sarvimäki, 2021. "Managing Refugee Protection Crises: Policy Lessons from Economics and Political Science," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2131, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    2. Sergei Guriev & Elias Papaioannou, 2022. "The Political Economy of Populism," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 753-832, September.
    3. Marinho Bertanha & Eunyi Chung, 2023. "Permutation Tests at Nonparametric Rates," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 118(544), pages 2833-2846, October.
    4. Salomon, Katja, 2020. "Dynamics of immigrant resentment in Europe," Discussion Papers, Presidential Department P 2020-002, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    5. Andrea Junqueira & Ali Kagalwala & Christine S. Lipsmeyer, 2023. "What's your problem? How issue ownership and partisan discourse influence personal concerns," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 104(1), pages 25-37, January.
    6. Bayerlein, Michael, 2021. "Chasing the Other 'Populist Zeitgeist'? Mainstream Parties and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 240403, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    7. Roman Hlatky, 2023. "The politicization of European integration and support for restrictive migration policies," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(4), pages 684-707, December.
    8. Alexandre Chirat & Cyril Hédoin, 2023. "Toward an economic theory of populism: Uncertainty, Information, and Public Interest in Downs’s Political Economy," EconomiX Working Papers 2023-16, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    9. Giebler, Heiko & Werner, Annika, 2020. "Cure, Poison or Placebo? The Consequences of Populist and Radical Party Success for Representative Democracy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 293-306.
    10. Hagemeister, Felix, 2022. "Populism and propagation of far-right extremism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    11. Robert Gold, 2022. "From a better understanding of the drivers of populism to a new political agenda," Working Papers 4, Forum New Economy.
    12. Shouzhi Xia, 2023. "Female members of parliament, right-wing parties, and the inclusiveness of immigration policy: evidence from 26 European countries," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 56(4), pages 689-707, December.
    13. Seabright, Paul & Gonnot, Jerome, 2021. "Establishment and Outsiders : Can Political Incorrectness and Social Extremism work as a Signal of Commitment to Populist Poli," CEPR Discussion Papers 15971, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Massimo Pulejo, 2023. "Pro-Social Backlash: The Effect of Far-Right Success on Voluntary Welfare Provision," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 23214, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    15. Celico, Andrea & Rode, Martin & Rodriguez-Carreño, Ignacio, 2024. "Will the real populists please stand up? A machine learning index of party populism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. Helbling, Marc & Meierrieks, Daniel, 2022. "Terrorism and Migration: An Overview," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 977-996.
    17. Christian Johansson & Anders Kärnä & Jaakko Meriläinen, 2023. "Vox Populi, Vox Dei? Tacit collusion in politics," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 752-772, November.
    18. Marie‐Ève Bélanger & Natasha Wunsch, 2022. "From Cohesion to Contagion? Populist Radical Right Contestation of EU Enlargement," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 653-672, May.
    19. Joyeeta Gupta & Aarti Gupta & Courtney Vegelin, 2022. "Equity, justice and the SDGs: lessons learnt from two decades of INEA scholarship," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 393-409, June.
    20. May-Britt Stumbaum, 2015. "The diffusion of norms in security-related fields: views from China, India and the EU," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 331-347, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:59:y:2021:i:3:p:721-737. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.