Introduction: Is Populism a Side-Effect of European Integration? Radical Parties and the Europeanization of Political Competition

International audiencePolitical radicalism has generated a large scholarly interest in recent years, both in Western and in Central Europe. Two series of explanations have been used to account for the success of radical parties in the scientific literature. The first one studies populism or radical politics through an analysis of electoral behaviour and/or radical groups' strategies at the national level of government. The second perspective deals with the European dimension of radical politics and researches critical attitudes regarding European integration under the generic term Euroscepticism. These two approaches to political radicalism have developed simultaneously but in an isolated way from each one other. The case studies presented in this volume aim at bridging this gap by focusing on the links between the Europeanization of political competition on the one hand, and the rise of radical parties on the other hand, in selected member states of the enlarged European Union