In Western Europe, ultra-rightwing parties are gaining ground. Could weakened democracies themselves be the reason behind this rise?

In Western Europe, ultra rightwing parties are constantly gaining ground. In Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) obtained a large percentage of the votes in three recent elections for state parliaments. In the Netherlands, the Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders last year became the largest party by far during the parliamentary elections, and it is now ruling the country as part of a rightwing coalition government. In France, the National Rally party of Marine Le Pen this summer had a strong showing during the first round of the elections for the National Assembly. This was mitigated somewhat during the second round, but only as the result of a strategic electoral pact between the other parties. In addition, the government led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier can only survive as long as it enjoys the support of the National Rally, which provides it with a lot of influence. The most recent example comes from Austria: The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) emerged as the leading party in Austrian elections for the first time, receiving 29% of the vote.

Those who resent the growing strength of these ultra rightwing parties are struggling to put a halt to it. In some countries, the established political parties contain extremist political parties through a cordon sanitaire by pledging that they will not cooperate with them. Several political parties have tried to co-opt ultra rightwing parties by adopting their manifesto pledges. Sometimes extremist parties have been banned by courts. And in a few cases the leaders of populist parties have been brought before the courts, which have sometimes convicted them. These measures have in common that they focus entirely on the superstructure: they rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic without changing its course.

The Limits of Traditional Strategies

To put an end to the growing strength of ultra rightwing parties, the focus must shift from the superstructure to the base. In his 2019 Schapiro lecture, Cas Mudde has expressed the view that populism is a symptom rather than the cause of the malfunction of democracy. To him, therefore, the real question is not how to defeat populism, but how to strengthen liberal democracy. If liberal democracy is strengthened, populism is consequently weakened. The

claim made by anti-populists that ‘we’, the liberal democrats, are the pure ones and ‘they’, the populists, are the corrupt ones, is not very helpful in this regard.

Democracy’s Decline and Extremism’s Rise

Consequently, we should stop considering democratic decay only as a result of the emergence of political extremism, but also as its cause. While we should not deny the undermining effect that political extremism may have on democracy, we should also acknowledge that the changes that have occurred within democracy over the past few decades have paved the way for political extremism. During the past few decades, liberal democracy in Europe has been watered down to a minimalist Schumpeterian version that only requires governmental power to rest with the political formation that wins a larger percentage of the popular vote than its opponents. This ‘thin’ democracy concept is characterized by sacralizing elections, opinion polls, self-promotion and image crafting by politicians, a culture of emotion, and the primacy of politics. The securitization of politics and policy, along with the emergence of the surveillance state, have amplified this democratic decline.

Restoring ‘Thick’ Liberal Democracy

However, liberal democracy sets the bar much higher than that. Thus, government should be limited by checks and balances, including the separation of powers, which should be constitutionally entrenched. Politicians should carry out their work within the four corners of the rule of law. The constitution should also guarantee a number of fundamental civil rights. Majority rule should be offset by the protection of minorities. Political decisions should be informed by rational and respectful dialogue rather than emotions, sentiment analysis, and framing.

Democracy has become a tool that can be used at will to pursue political ends, rather than a set of principles reining in the political process. Consequently, the emergence of political extremism over the past decades has been caused, at least in part, by the shallowing and narrowing of democratic practice. Knowing the cause also unveils the solution: if democratic practice is brought into line again with ‘thick’ liberal democracy, political extremism will dwindle.

A New Approach: Empowering Youth to Defend Democracy

Therefore, several organizations, including the Plus Institute in Vienna, Enstitü Sosyal, and the Islamic University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam, have joined forces by developing a project

aimed at restoring ‘thick’ democracy. The project will involve young people as change agents. They will be trained and equipped to contribute to the strengthening of liberal democracy to eradicate political extremism. Hopefully, this will prove to be a turning point in pushing back ultra rightwing politics.

*Prof. Tom Zwart is currently working at the Islamic University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam (IUASR), specializing in Cross-cultural Law.