Making Tomorrow’s Leaders Youth Movements of Right Wing Populist Parties

Financiers

Swedish Research Council

Project type

Research

The classic scholarship on right-wing populism believed such parties to be episodic, whereas the reality is that many contemporary European far right parties have been built to last, with well-developed grassroots organizations and youth sections providing new generations of leaders. The project will therefore for the first time study PRR youth organizations in Europe.

Since surprisingly little in general has been written about young people in political party youth factions the project will contribute to the literature on youth political participation. The project combines theories and concepts from different research fields – party organisation, political participation and populist radical right parties – and cross-fertilizes previously loosely connected research areas.

Four main overarching questions using a variety of theories, quantitative and qualitative methods and different sources.These will ask:

  1. How are the youth sections of the five parties organized?
  2. Why do young people join?
  3. What activities are members engaged in and how are they socialized?
  4. Is a transnational populist radical right elite emerging? In addition to existing party documentation and media material, the project will collect new original data on the members, activists and leaders of the radical youth organisations.

Professor Duncan McDonnell, Griffith University, Australia

Professor Cas Mudde, University of Athens, USA

Ph.D Anders Råvik Jupskås, CEREC, University of Oslo

Ph.D Peteris Timofejevs Henriksson, Umeå Universitet

Research area / geographic area

Social Sciences Political Science Politics, Economy and the Organisation of Society Europe

Project time

2017 — 2021

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Page updated

03-02-2020