Search

A range of literatures drawing on liberal and Marxist intellectual traditions challenges the relevance of political mobilization dedicated to securing statehood and territorial sovereignty for national communities, arguing that the possibilities for nationalist political expression in contemporary Europe have shifted dramatically from those available to nationalists in the past. The Flemish separatist party Vlaams Belang serves as a basis for exploring the logic of a party that seeks to create an independent state in a historical era and geographical context that are argued to militate against the possibility of independent, sovereign statehood. I examine two conflicting logics about sovereignty and political space, embodied in the practices of the European Union and the arguments of Vlaams Belang as two poles representing different ideologies about how power should be exercised over territory. I argue that at the heart of the Vlaams Belang agenda is the desire to reappropriate space and sovereignty for a Flemish nation-state in an effort that recalls the modernizing ideals of earlier nationalists, a political vision that cannot be reconciled with the post-modern articulations of European integration. To assess the conflict between a 'modernizing' Vlaams Belang and a purportedly post-modern EU, I focus on problems of political territory for the Vlaams Belang, in particular the party's understandings of EU citizenship and the freedom of movement accorded as a fundamental freedom of the EU. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars acknowledge that right-wing extremism pose a threat to democratic norms and institutions, but the existing research does not tell us enough about the effects of the newly emerged extreme right-wing parties (ERPs) on the politics established democracies. Drawing on party literature and spatial theories of party competition, as well as the empirical data collected as a part of the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) project, this study examines how the ERPs have influenced the political agenda of the established parties in Western Europe. Specifically, I argue that the rising electoral strength of the ERPs alone is not a sufficient indicator of the influence of right-wing extremism on democratic politics. Instead, ideologically rightward movements of the established parties should be taken into account in order to provide a more comprehensive picture of how rising right-wing extremism has structured the political agenda of contemporary democracies. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]