Ο συντηρητικός εθνολαϊκισμός στη Δυτική Ευρώπη: Ένα αντιφατικό φαινόμενο

Abstract

This article considers the success of conservative national-populist parties in several West European countries as an ambivalent phenomenon. Based on a study of the ideological, organisational, and sociological characteristics of these parties, it identifies two basic antinomies they are subject to. The combination of an anti-elitistic criticism emphasising the oligarchic nature of contemporary democratic systems with proposals for selective measures of solidarity that imply social exclusions, and proposals for démocratisation that are accompanied by hierarchical internal structures and authoritarian social values hostile to the respect of differences. The article also assesses the impact of institutional factors and of the political context on the resonance of national-populism. It concludes on the limitations of populist influence, on the ‘boomerang’ effects of electoral over-promising by anti-establishment parties when they come to power, and on the support by these parties of the democratic nature of the regime in spite of their distrust vis-a-vis representation. As a result, the systemic danger that contemporary national-populism entails cannot be assimilated to the destabilising role of extreme-right movements in the interwar period.