Radical right populism and religion: mapping parties’ religious communication in Western Europe

Political scientists have strongly focused on the religiosity of voters and its effects on electoral behaviour. However, the religious stances of political parties have largely been neglected. Yet, some scholars argue that religion is on the rise again due to the success of populist radical right pa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religion, state & society
Authors: Schwörer, Jakob 1988- (Author) ; Romero-Vidal, Xavier (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge 2020
In: Religion, state & society
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Europe / Party (law) / Religion / The Right / Radicalism / Populism / Interfaith dialogue
IxTheo Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
BJ Islam
CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations
ZC Politics in general
Further subjects:B Radical Right
B Islam
B Political Parties
B Religion
B Christianity
B Secularism
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:Political scientists have strongly focused on the religiosity of voters and its effects on electoral behaviour. However, the religious stances of political parties have largely been neglected. Yet, some scholars argue that religion is on the rise again due to the success of populist radical right parties, which use religious references as a campaigning strategy and present themselves as defenders of Christianity against a Muslim threat. Conducting a dictionary-based quantitative content analysis of the election manifestos and Facebook posts of 36 political parties in seven Western European countries, this study provides evidence that populist radical right parties frame Islam in a more negative way than other party groups while presenting Christianity in a more positive tone. However, constructing religious outgroups seems to be much more important to radical right parties than creating a Christian ingroup. Furthermore, our results suggest that there is no systematic link between ideology and pro-secularism messages.
ISSN:1465-3974
Contains:Enthalten in: Religion, state & society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2019.1704611