300270 LEH: Soziologische Methoden - quantitativ LF1: The Populist Radical Right in Europe (LEH) (WiSe 2024/2025)

Populism and polarization are social phenomena that have dominated debates in the social sciences in recent years. While populist movements contest liberal democracies worldwide, populist radical right parties have been able to stabilize themselves in European parliaments in particular since the 1990s. In a growing number of countries, populist radical right parties have even been in government, such as Fratelli d’Italia in Italy, the Fidesz party in Hungary and the FPÖ in Austria.

The seminar (LEH) empirically examines the causes, dynamics, and consequences of support of populist radical right parties within and across countries.

In the first part of the seminar (LEH), we will review the current state of research. This includes, amongst others, definitory debates on the concept of populist radical right in contrast to related concepts, such as right-wing extremism, nationalism, etc. and an overview of populist radical right parties in Europe. Also, we will review both individual as well as contextual factors that help explain the public support of populist radical right parties. The seminar will also discuss the consequences of growing support of populist radical right parties for political discourses and democratic processes. During this first part of the seminar (LEH), participants will develop their own research questions individually or in small groups, which they will work on empirically in the second part of the seminar using existing data sources.

The second part of the seminar (LEH) teaches skills in analyzing quantitative data, in particular survey data emanating from comparative research designs. We provide data on, for instance, the European Social Survey, the European Elections Study, and the International Social Survey Programme. Alternative data sources at the level of parties, their manifestos, countries, etc. may also be used. Depending on the research interests of participants, hierarchical regression models (also: multilevel regression) will be covered. Analyses are carried out using the statistical software Stata. Alternatively, participants may use R.