Populist parties and the failure of the political elites : the rise of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ)

The author analyses the reasons behind the electoral success of European right-wing populist parties. Using the Austrian Freedom Party under Joerg 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”.