BOOK: PARTNERING WITH EXTREMISTS
December 2019, University of Michigan Press (available here)
Contrary to expectations that they would be excluded for being “beyond the pale,” far-right parties in Western Europe participated in 21 governments from 1994-2017. Because allying with the far right offers major mainstream-right parties a better opportunity to maximize their goals, the latter treat the far right as they would any other party; they prioritize office and policy, rather than concerns about far-right “appropriateness.”
Indeed, the far right has been included in coalition after nearly 60% of elections when it could contribute to a right-wing majority. Cases of far-right exclusion can overwhelmingly be explained by whether the far right’s seats would help the mainstream right, not a principled desire to keep the far right in opposition.
By examining 19 case studies of coalition formation in Austria and the Netherlands, I show that the far right is willing to support the mainstream right’s policy goals in exchange for immigration restrictions, while other coalition options would require the mainstream right to make more policy compromises. I extend my argument to other responses and to other cases: I show how the mainstream parties regularly adopted anti-immigration rhetoric during periods of “exclusion,” though only when doing so was in their strategic interest, and I demonstrate how the logic of mainstream party goals holds in majoritarian systems (the UK and France).
PUBLICATIONS
Differential pre-treatment effects in survey experiments (with Katerina Linos) – 2018, Volume 5, Issue 2, Journal of Experimental Political Science
The Supreme Court, the Media, and Public Opinion: Comparing Experimental and Observational Methods (with Katerina Linos) – 2016, Volume 45, Journal of Legal Studies
- Received Best Conference Paper Award, APSA Law & Courts Section, 2014
- Received Honorable Mention Award, Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, 2012
WORKING PAPERS
- The mainstream right, far right, and coalition formation in Western Europe
- Party positions & the problems with Comparative Manifesto Project estimates
- Borrowing from the far right: Mainstream parties’ changing immigration positions and public opinion
- The negative impact of far-right parties on European integration
- Why Brexit? The role of the UK Independence Party
- Taming the extremists? The impact of governing on far-right parties
WORK IN PROGRESS
- What makes the far right appear more or less legitimate?
- What / who counts as “far right” in the United States?
- Why hasn’t the far right been even more electorally successful?
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
American Political Science Association: 2019, 2013-16, 2010, 2008
Midwest Political Science Association: 2017-19, 2014, 2013
Society for Political Methodology: 2015, 2014
Western U.S. Graduate Student Research Workshop on the EU: 2014, 2013
NYU Center for Experimental Social Science: 2013