Populist Radical Right: Illiberal Erosion or Liberal Decay? Assessing Theoretical Explanations in the Wake of the 2024 European Parliament Election

Alfonso A. López-Rodríguez and Jesus M. Benitez-Baleato ()
Additional contact information
Alfonso A. López-Rodríguez: Political Analysis Research Group (Equipo de Investigacións Políticas), Departamento de Ciencia Política e Socioloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Jesus M. Benitez-Baleato: Political Analysis Research Group (Equipo de Investigacións Políticas), Departamento de Ciencia Política e Socioloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Societies, 2025, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: This article identifies the structural factors underlying the rise of the Populist Radical Right (PRR) in Europe and evaluates its implications for liberal democracies. Our research finds that the emergence of the PRR is driven by the decay of democratic institutions resulting from the neoliberal globalization that was catalyzed by the collapse of the Soviet Union. We argue that the electoral success of the PRR lies in its capacity to use emotionally charged, single-issue narratives that resonate with the political demands of orphaned electorates, who engage in protest voting to express their frustrated expectations. Far from being an ephemeral phenomenon, we show that the PRR reflects structural transformations of the liberal political architecture, and is capable to further eroding democratic institutions by procedurally adopting liberal norms as a means to undermine them. A critical reassessment of the liberal perspective is necessary to address the dysfunctions of democratic institutions.

Keywords: illiberal; far right; extreme right; populism; populist radical right; Europe; neuropolitics; digitalization; artificial intelligence; social media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/8/211/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/8/211/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:15:y:2025:i:8:p:211-:d:1713126

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().