Collaboration as successful strategy against right-wing populism? The case of the centre-right coalition in Austria, 2000–2007

Abstract

The article represents the first systematic study of the reactions of political parties and the media as well as national and transnational civil society actors to the rise and inclusion in government in 2000 of the Austrian right-wing populist Freedom Party (FPÖ). Specifically, it investigates the effectiveness of strategies aimed at ostracizing populist actors versus “defanging” them through incorporation in public office. The article finds that turning the FPÖ into a pariah has not been effective in moderating the party or curbing its success. Incorporation in public office has been more effective, however, leading to the near collapse of the FPÖ and the split of the party. Yet, the cause for such an outcome may be found less in the strategy itself by imposing some intrinsic mechanism of moderation but rather in the incompetence and inexperience of populist party politicians unfamiliar with public office. Exclusionary strategies have also the undesirable effect of playing into the narrative of populist actors of being persecuted by the political establishment thereby offering them another means of mobilization. The article concludes that the revival of the FPÖ shows that no strategy can yield lasting success unless the demand-side causes underlying radical right-wing populism are addressed.

Keywords:

• right-wing populism
• government
• strategies of inclusion/exclusion
• Freedom Party
• Austria

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Franz Fallend is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Salzburg, Austria. His research has focused on Austrian politics, federalism and right-wing populism. He has published articles in the Austrian Journal of Political Science, the European Journal of Political Research and West European Politics.

Reinhard Heinisch is Professor of Austrian Politics in Comparative Perspective at the Department of Political Science at the University of Salzburg, Austria. Before, he served as Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh (1994–2009). His main area of work includes comparative populism, corporatism and Austrian politics. He is the author of Populism, Proporz, Pariah: Austria Turns Right (2002) as well as of numerous peer-reviewed publications.

Notes

1. Morrow, “Jörg Haider and the New FPÖ,” 48–51; Heinisch, “Austria: The Structure and Agency of Austrian Populism,” 71–2.

2. Luther, “The Self-Destruction of a Right-Wing Populist Party?” 138–41.

3. Fallend, “Populism in Government,” 128–9.

4. See Heinisch, Populism, Proporz and Pariah; Luther, “Die Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs”; Morrow, “Jörg Haider and the New FPÖ”; Müller, “Evil or the ‘Engine of Democracy'”.

5. Luther, “The Self-Destruction of a Right-Wing Populist Party?” 150.

6. Downs, Political Extremism in Democracies, 20.

7. The presence of two new protest parties, especially the populist party Team Stronach, took votes away from FPÖ and BZÖ.

8. Capoccia, Defending Democracy.

9. Rummens and Abts, “Defending Democracy.”

10. Downs, Political Extremism in Democracies.

11. Rummens and Abts, “Defending Democracy,” 649.

12. Khol, “Die FPÖ im Spannungsfeld.”

13. Luther, “Governing with Right-Wing Populists,” 81–2; Fallend, “Populism in Government,” 120.

14. Luther, “Governing with Right-Wing Populists,” 82, 84.

15. Ibid., 83.

16. Luther, “The Self-Destruction of a Right-Wing Populist Party?” 136–7.

17. Müller, “The Parliamentary Election in Austria,” 346.

18. Heinisch, Populism, Proporz and Pariah, 229.

19. Schüssel, Offengelegt, 98–100.

20. Khol, Die Wende ist geglückt, 117 (translation by the authors).

21. Minkenberg, “The Radical Right in Public Office,” 15–6.

22. IMAS, “Trotz Ärger über Jörg Haider.”

23. Luther, “The Self-Destruction of a Right-Wing Populist Party?” 138.

24. Luther, “Governing with Right-Wing Populists,” 89–90.

25. Ibid., 95.

26. Ibid., 94, 98.

27. See Capoccia, Defending Democracy.

28. Rummens and Abts, “Defending Democracy,” 657.

29. Morrow, “Jörg Haider and the New FPÖ,” 47; Art, “Reacting to the Radical Right,” 341–2.

30. Müller, “Austria: Tight Coalitions and Stable Government,“ 94–5.

31. Müller, “The Austrian Election of October 1999,” 196; Liegl, “Die ÖVP,” 41.

32. Minkenberg, “The Radical Right in Public Office,” 13–4.

33. Müller and Fallend, “Changing Patterns of Party Competition,” 811–3.

34. Luther, “Governing with Right-Wing Populists,” 88.

35. Liegl, “Die ÖVP,” 43.

36. Müller and Jenny, “Demokratischer Rollentausch,“ 67–77.

37. Liegl, “Die ÖVP,” 41–2.

38. Ibid., 44–5; Art, “Reacting to the Radical Right,” 342.

39. Liegl, “Die ÖVP,” 44–5.

40. Plasser et al., “Kampagnendynamik,” 23–4, 27–8.

41. Graf, “Die Grünen,” 59.

42. Loewenstein, “Militant Democracy.”

43. See Rummens and Abts, “Defending Democracy,” 657.

44. Mouffe, “The ‘End of Politics,’” 63–4.

45. Rummens and Abts, “Defending Democracy,” 656.

46. IMAS, “Unter dem Eindruck des EU-Unrechts.”

47. Müller and Fallend, “Changing Patterns of Party Competition,” 810–1.

48. Fallend, “Populism in Government,” 130.

49. Art, “Reacting to the Radical Right,” 339–40, 343–4.

50. See the documentation of the international newspaper reaction compiled by Der Standard (October 10, 1999).

51. See http://www.economist.com/node/325312 (13 April 2015).

52. Plasser and Lengauer, “Die österreichische Medienarena,” 31–3.

53. Bailer-Galanda and Neugebauer, Haider und die Freiheitlichen, 85.

54. Pallaver et al., “Wahlkampf in den Fernsehnachrichten,” 180.

55. Kaltenbrunner, “Medienpolitik,” 122–3.

56. Heinisch, Populism, Proporz and Pariah, 265–9.

57. Plasser, “Medien und politische Kommunikation,” 527.

58. Art, “Reacting to the Radical Right.”

59. Reichel, “Die Ära Schüssel im Spiegel ausländischer Medien,“ 722, 726, 728.

60. Obinger, “Veto Players,” 51.

61. Ibid., 49.

62. For a list of major decisions of the Constitutional Court see http://www.vfgh.gv.at/cms/vfgh-site/entscheid.html?periode=old (13 April 2015).

63. Fallend, “Populism in Government,” 133–4.

64. Kopeinig and Kotanko, Eine europäische Affäre, 23.

65. Heinisch Populism, Proporz and Pariah, 240.

66. Schneider, “Österreich in Acht und Bann,” 133.

67. Library of Congress, “CRS Report,” 11. See also https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/106/hres417/text.

68. Kopeinig and Kotanko, Eine europäische Affäre, 17.

69. Schneider, “Österreich in Acht und Bann.”

70. For a detailed discussion see Kopeinig and Kotanko, Eine europäische Affäre; Pernthaler and Hilpold, “Sanktionen”; Schneider, “Österreich in Acht und Bann”; Falkner, “The EU 14's ‘Sanctions’ Against Austria”; Merlingen et al., “The Right and the Righteous”; Heinisch, Populism, Proporz and Pariah.

71. Ahtisaari et al., “Report on the Austrian Government's Commitment to European Values,” 110.

72. Ibid., 117.

73. Kopeinig and Kotanko, Eine europäische Affäre, 20.