Populist Parties and the Failure of the Political Elites

The author analyses the reasons behind the electoral success of European right-wing populist parties. Using the Austrian Freedom Party under Jrg Haider as a case study and with a richness of primary material, he argues that their success is only partly caused by racism. It is also, and more prominently, the result of populism i.e. a critique of the elite. These parties and their voters should not, then, be labelled as arrogant insiders attacking downtrodden outsiders like immigrants, workers, and minorities. Instead, the right-wingers are more justly portrayed as outsiders and underdogs, raising their anger and frustration against the insiders: the media elite and the leftists and the artists.