Duncan McDonnell
I am Professor of Politics at Griffith University. Before joining Griffith in September 2014, I was a Jean Monnet Fellow and then a Marie Curie Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. I received my PhD in Political Science from the University of Turin in 2008.
I am an Australian Research Council Future Fellow from May 2022 to May 2026. Over the past five years, I have held grants from the Swedish Research Council and the Australian Research Council for long-term projects on youth wings in Europe, on the relationships between populist and mainstream parties, and on Indigenous involvement in Australian parties.
My most recent book, co-authored with Annika Werner, is International Populism: The Radical Right in the European Parliament (2019), published in the UK by Hurst and in the US by Oxford University Press. Since 2015, I have published articles in journals such as Perspectives on Politics, European Journal of Political Research, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Common Market Studies, Democratization, and Political Studies. I tweet at @duncanmcdonnell
I am an Australian Research Council Future Fellow from May 2022 to May 2026. Over the past five years, I have held grants from the Swedish Research Council and the Australian Research Council for long-term projects on youth wings in Europe, on the relationships between populist and mainstream parties, and on Indigenous involvement in Australian parties.
My most recent book, co-authored with Annika Werner, is International Populism: The Radical Right in the European Parliament (2019), published in the UK by Hurst and in the US by Oxford University Press. Since 2015, I have published articles in journals such as Perspectives on Politics, European Journal of Political Research, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Common Market Studies, Democratization, and Political Studies. I tweet at @duncanmcdonnell
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Journal Articles & book chapters by Duncan McDonnell
opposition to government? How do different ideological types of
right-wing populist parties express this discourse? Through an analysis
of the Lega Nord and Forza Italia/Popolo della LibertĆ between 2006
and 2013, we find that while the switch to office does bring some
changes, the main elements of their populist discourse remain largely
the same. We also show how their respective emphases on āelitesā and
āothersā distinguish the parties: FI/PDL focuses overwhelmingly on
āelitesā while the LN places similar emphasis on both āelitesā and āothersā
opposition to government? How do different ideological types of
right-wing populist parties express this discourse? Through an analysis
of the Lega Nord and Forza Italia/Popolo della LibertĆ between 2006
and 2013, we find that while the switch to office does bring some
changes, the main elements of their populist discourse remain largely
the same. We also show how their respective emphases on āelitesā and
āothersā distinguish the parties: FI/PDL focuses overwhelmingly on
āelitesā while the LN places similar emphasis on both āelitesā and āothersā
Based on policy positions, voting data, and interviews conducted over three years with senior figures from fourteen radical right populist parties and their partners, this is the first major study to explain these parties' actions and alliances in the European Parliament. International Populism answers three key questions: why have radical right populists, unlike other ideological party types, long been divided in the Parliament? Why, although divisions persist, are many of them now more united than ever? And how does all this inform our understanding of the European populist radical right today?
Arguing that these parties have entered a new international and transnational phase, with some trying to be "respectable radicals" while others embrace their shared populism, McDonnell and Werner shed new light on the past, present and future of one of the most important political phenomena of twenty-first-century Europe.
Our findings run contrary to much of the received wisdom. Based on extensive original research and fieldwork, we show that populist parties can be built to last, can achieve key policy victories and can survive the experience of government, without losing the support of either the voters or those within their parties.