Simon Bornschier
University of Zurich, Switzerland, Political Science, Department Member
This article analyzes why, despite similar transformations in the dimensions structuring political space since the late 1980s, extreme right-wing populist parties have emerged in some West European countries, but not in others. Two... more
This article analyzes why, despite similar transformations in the dimensions structuring political space since the late 1980s, extreme right-wing populist parties have emerged in some West European countries, but not in others. Two factors may affect the fortunes of these parties. First, if electorates remain firmly entrenched in older cleavages, new parties will find it difficult to establish themselves. Second, the positions of the established actors with respect to the new cultural divide that the extreme populist right mobilizes may be crucial. This article systematizes the various explanations regarding the impact of mainstream party positions on the electoral fortunes of the extreme right, and develops two new hypotheses that differentiate between the conditions that favor the entry of the extreme right, and its subsequent success. The various hypotheses are then tested in an empirical analysis of election campaigns in France and Germany, combining data on party positions as r...
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This paper sets out to explain the highly uneven breakthrough of the “populist” or “contestatory” left during the “left turn” in Latin America since the late 1990s. Extant attempts to explain why moderate left parties that resemble the... more
This paper sets out to explain the highly uneven breakthrough of the “populist” or “contestatory” left during the “left turn” in Latin America since the late 1990s. Extant attempts to explain why moderate left parties that resemble the traditional social democratic mass parties have emerged in some countries, and populist left parties in others have been inconclusive. I argue that populist anti-establishment mobilization falls on fruitful ground where party systems do not adequately represent citizen preferences. This is a necessary, though not a sufficient condition for populist success. Combining data on party positions with mass-level surveys for two cases where new anti-establishment parties that have been successful and two cases of failure, I analyze how well parties represent voters along the two most salient dimensions of political competition in Latin America: the economic antagonism between state and market, and the regime dimension that pits democrats (or those in favor o...
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This paper focuses on the congruence of representation directly after the “third wave” of democratization in Latin America, and on its historical origins. It tests the argument according to which party systems that experienced ideological... more
This paper focuses on the congruence of representation directly after the “third wave” of democratization in Latin America, and on its historical origins. It tests the argument according to which party systems that experienced ideological polarization in the early 20th century were set on a programmatic track and today are likely to exhibit high levels of congruence in the representation of their voters’ interests. In other contexts, where elites relied heavily on clientelistic resources to de-mobilize the citizenry when the suffrage was expanded in the first half of the 20th century, programmatic representation is likely to remain weak until the 1990s. These hypotheses are verified by combining the PELA-surveys of Latin American legislators with mass-level survey data. The results not only reveal important contrasts in the congruence of representation across the seven countries studied, but also that these differences can be explained rather well by historical patterns of party sys...
The last decades have seen the emergence of a divide pitting the new left against the far right in advanced democracies. We study how this universalism-particularism divide is crystallizing into a full-blown cleavage, complete with... more
The last decades have seen the emergence of a divide pitting the new left against the far right in advanced democracies. We study how this universalism-particularism divide is crystallizing into a full-blown cleavage, complete with structural, political and identity elements. So far, little research exists on the identities that voters themselves perceive as relevant for drawing in- and out-group boundaries along this divide. Based on an original survey from Switzerland, a paradigmatic case of electoral realignment, we show that voters’ “objective” socio-demographic characteristics relate to distinctive, primarily culturally connoted identities. We then inquire into the degree to which these group identities have been politicized, that is, whether they divide new left and far right voters. Our results strongly suggest that the universalism-particularism “cleavage” not only bundles issues, but shapes how people think about who they are and where they stand in a group conflict that me...
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This chapter underscores the merit of studying the emergence and growth of the radical right from a cleavage perspective, which sees party system change as rooted in large-scale transformations of social structure. The chapter begins by... more
This chapter underscores the merit of studying the emergence and growth of the radical right from a cleavage perspective, which sees party system change as rooted in large-scale transformations of social structure. The chapter begins by discussing explanations for the rise of the radical right in terms of the educational revolution, the processes of economic and cultural modernization, and globalization, showing where these perspectives converge and where they differ. It then goes on to show how the structuralist perspective has been combined with a focus on agency. Under conditions of multidimensional party competition, the behavior of mainstream parties is crucial, because it determines the relative salience of competitive dimensions and whether they offer space for radical right-wing challengers. Some of the most exciting recent research studies how the processes of dealignment and realignment structure the propensity of specific social groups such as the manual working class to ...
Although ideological polarization can create problems for governability and democratic stability, this article argues that it also has beneficial effects in new democracies. By clarifying the political alternatives, polarization creates... more
Although ideological polarization can create problems for governability and democratic stability, this article argues that it also has beneficial effects in new democracies. By clarifying the political alternatives, polarization creates strong links between parties and voters, and thereby instills accountability mechanisms that force parties to remain responsive to evolving voter preferences. A comparative historical analysis of six South American cases demonstrates that the vast differences in the quality of representation in the 1980s, immediately after many countries in the region returned to democracy, were rooted in an early bifurcation of party systems in the first half of the twentieth century: while prolonged periods of ideological conflict occurred in some countries during this period, polarization was aborted by various means in others. By showing that ideological moderation may help formal democracies survive, but that aborting conflict in the long run severely hampers ke...
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Versions papier et électronique : le numéro est expédié par poste. Il est également accessible immédiatement en ligne. ... Versions papier et électronique : les numéros sont expédié par poste au fur et à mesure de leur parution. Tous les numéros en ligne sont immédiatement ...
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2010 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2010 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bornschier, Simon. Cleavage... more
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2010 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2010 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bornschier, Simon. Cleavage politics and the populist ...
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Read the introduction: To many, the transformation of West European party systems since the 1970s and 1980s was seen as evidence that the era of cleavage based politics was over. The rise of identity politics was interpreted not only as a... more
Read the introduction: To many, the transformation of West European party systems since the 1970s and 1980s was seen as evidence that the era of cleavage based politics was over. The rise of identity politics was interpreted not only as a result of the waning of the traditional class and religious cleavages, but as evidence for a new era in which political preferences de-coupled from social structure began to shape voting behavior. It was assumed that voters were “beginning to choose” parties for their policy propositions, the quality of their personnel, or based on their value preferences. The more recent successes of the extreme populist right once again were taken to indicate that anti-establishment populist mobilization was cutting across class alignments. From this point of view, the by now well-established finding that the working class is over-represented in the extreme populist right’s electorate came unexpected. While a host of hypotheses have been advanced to explain the p...
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2010 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2010 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bornschier, Simon. Cleavage... more
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2010 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2010 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bornschier, Simon. Cleavage politics and the populist ...
This text may be downloaded for personal research purposes only. Any additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copy or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference... more
This text may be downloaded for personal research purposes only. Any additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copy or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the ...
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Die SVP hat sich in den letzten 15 Jahren stark gewandelt. Früher nur in ländlichen und protestantischen Regionen angesiedelt, ist sie unter dem Einfluss von Christoph Blocher zur stärksten Partei auf nationaler Ebene geworden. Dieses... more
Die SVP hat sich in den letzten 15 Jahren stark gewandelt. Früher nur in ländlichen und protestantischen Regionen angesiedelt, ist sie unter dem Einfluss von Christoph Blocher zur stärksten Partei auf nationaler Ebene geworden. Dieses Buch bietet eine detaillierte Analyse der Gründe dieses Aufstiegs.Nach den eidgenössischen Wahlen 2003 kam es zum ersten Mal seit über 40 Jahren zu einer Veränderung in der Zusammensetzung des Bundesrates, der Schweizer Regierung. Die «Zauberformel», welche seit den Wahlen von 1959 Gültigkeit gehabt hatte, wurde modifiziert. Mit Christoph Blocher, dem charismatischen Führer der Zürcher SVP, wurde ein zweites Mitglied der SVP auf Kosten der CVP in den Bundesrat gewählt. Gleichzeitig wählte die Vereinigte Bundesversammlung mit Hans-Rudolf Merz auch einen neuen, konservativen Vertreter des Freisinns. Der Rechtsrutsch in der Regierung war das Resultat des stürmischen Aufstiegs, den die SVP seit Beginn der 1990er Jahre in Schweizer Wahlen auf allen Ebenen e...
New structural potentials related to the processes of globalization and European integration have produced far-reaching changes in the structure of oppositions in the French party system. Whereas the newly designed institutions of the... more
New structural potentials related to the processes of globalization and European integration have produced far-reaching changes in the structure of oppositions in the French party system. Whereas the newly designed institutions of the Fifth Republic progressively ...
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Abstract. This article starts from the assumption that the current process of globalization or denationalization leads to the formation of a new structural conflict in Western European countries, opposing those who benefit from this... more
Abstract. This article starts from the assumption that the current process of globalization or denationalization leads to the formation of a new structural conflict in Western European countries, opposing those who benefit from this process against those who tend to lose in the course of the events. The structural opposition between globalization ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ is expected to constitute potentials for political mobilization within national political contexts, the mobilization of which is expected to give rise to two intimately related dynamics: the transformation of the basic structure of the national political space and the strategic repositioning of the political parties within the transforming space. The article presents several hypotheses with regard to these two dynamics and tests them empirically on the basis of new data concerning the supply side of electoral politics from six Western European countries (Austria, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland). The results indicate that in all the countries, the new cleavage has become embedded into existing two-dimensional national political spaces, that the meaning of the original dimensions has been transformed, and that the configuration of the main parties has become triangular even in a country like France.
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RESUMEN: El presente artículo se ocupa de los orígenes y los niveles de congruencia en la representación luego de la tercera ola democratizadora en América Latina. Pone a prueba el argumento que sostiene que los sistemas de partidos que... more
RESUMEN: El presente artículo se ocupa de los orígenes y los niveles de congruencia en la representación luego de la tercera ola democratizadora en América Latina. Pone a prueba el argumento que sostiene que los sistemas de partidos que han experimentado polarización ideológica a principios del siglo XX y estaban ubicados en el camino programático hoy en día son proclives a exhibir altos niveles de congruencia en la representación de los intereses de los votantes. En otros contextos, donde las élites se apoyan sustancialmente en recursos clientelares para desmovilizar a la ciudadanía, allí donde el sufragio fue extendido en la primera mitad del siglo XX, es probable que la representación programática permanezca débil hasta la década de 1990. Las hipótesis se testean combinando las encuestas a legisladores de América Latina provistas por el Proyecto Élites Parlamentarias de América Latina (PELA) de la Universidad de Salamanca y de los datos provistos por el World Value Survey (WVS). Los resultados no solo revelan importantes con-trastes en la congruencia de la representación entre los siete países estudiados, sino que las diferencias pueden ser explicadas por los patrones históricos de formación de los sistemas de partidos.
ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on the congruence of representation directly after the «third wave» of democratization in Latin America, and on its historical origins. It tests the argument according to which party systems that experienced ideological polarization in the early 20 th century were set on a programmatic track and today are likely to exhibit high levels of congruence in the representation of their voters’ interests. In other contexts, where élites relied heavily on clientelistic resources to de-mobilize the citizenry when the suffrage was expanded in the first half of the 20th century, programmatic representation is likely to remain weak until the 1990s. These hypotheses are verified by combining the PELA-surveys of Latin American legislators with mass-level survey data. The results not only reveal important contrasts in the congruence of representation across the seven countries studied, but also that these differences can be explained rather well by historical patterns of party system formation.
BORNSCHIER, S. (2013). Trayectorias históricas y «responsiveness» del sistema de partidos en siete países de América Latina. AméRica Latina Hoy, 65, 45-77.
ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on the congruence of representation directly after the «third wave» of democratization in Latin America, and on its historical origins. It tests the argument according to which party systems that experienced ideological polarization in the early 20 th century were set on a programmatic track and today are likely to exhibit high levels of congruence in the representation of their voters’ interests. In other contexts, where élites relied heavily on clientelistic resources to de-mobilize the citizenry when the suffrage was expanded in the first half of the 20th century, programmatic representation is likely to remain weak until the 1990s. These hypotheses are verified by combining the PELA-surveys of Latin American legislators with mass-level survey data. The results not only reveal important contrasts in the congruence of representation across the seven countries studied, but also that these differences can be explained rather well by historical patterns of party system formation.
BORNSCHIER, S. (2013). Trayectorias históricas y «responsiveness» del sistema de partidos en siete países de América Latina. AméRica Latina Hoy, 65, 45-77.