Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European ...

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Sweden: The Scandinavian
Exception
Jens Rydgren
Introduction 1
The last two decades have seen a resurgence of the radical right in Western
Europe. These parties, which hereafter will be called radical right-wing
populist (RRP) parties, share a fundamental core of (a) ethno-nationalist
xenophobia − manifested in strong anti-immigration stances and opposition
to multiculturalism; and (b) anti-political establishment populism −
expressed by presenting themselves as the only alternative to the corrupt
elite, of which all other political parties are part. This ideological core is
embedded in a general socio-cultural authoritarianism, which stresses
themes like law and order and family values (Rydgren, 2005).
The emergence of RRP parties was preceded by the foundation of rightwing
populist parties in Denmark and Norway in the early 1970s. These
parties emerged primarily in opposition to bureaucracy and a tax take that,
in their opinion, had escalated out of all proportion. They were not, however,
ethno-nationalist and did not mobilize against immigration until the
1980s. In Sweden, however, populist parties have never managed to attract
more than three per cent of the electorate, with the exception of the 1991
election, when the newly formed New Democracy gained 6.7 per cent of the
vote. However, since the collapse of New Democracy in 1994, no Swedish
populist party has won a parliamentary seat. Even given the relative success
of today’s leading RRP party, the Sweden Democrats, in the 2006 general
election (in which it increased its vote share from 1.4 to almost three per
cent and won over 250 seats on different local councils), Sweden’s RRP parties
appear marginalized in a comparative Western European perspective.
As the Scandinavian countries share several important traits − such as
welfare regimes, secularism, histories of Social Democratic dominance, and
so on − the fact that radical right-wing populism has been highly successful
in Denmark and Norway, but largely failed in Sweden since the mid 1990s is
counterintuitive. The main aim of this paper is to present possible explanations
to the questions this fact gives rise to. The chapter will therefore examine
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