Populist Success and Failure

Léonie de Jonge shows that, like in a marketplace, success and failure of populist parties are often considered to be result of a balance between supply and demand. ‘Public demand’ includes the socioeconomic conditions that make voters choose populist options, while ‘party supply’ concerns the mechanisms that enable populist parties to translate the existing demand into actual votes. However, de Jonge argues that to understand the electoral performance of populist forces we must examine the wider context in which party competition takes place we must examine the wider context in which party competition takes place. In particular, she claims that the behaviour of mainstream parties and the media are crucial for the electoral breakthrough, or failure, of right-wing populist parties.