Radical right populist parties and the crisis of representative democracy: a paradoxical fate?

Radical right populist parties are on the rise in many European countries because of a crisis of representative democracy. While RRPP are often described as threatening democracy, they also pretend that they are at the forefront of democracy by proposing to reduce the gap between the people and the elites and by proposing democratic innovations such as participatory or deliberative tools. In such a context, this paper aims at investigating to what extent RRPP influence mainstream parties and how the latter react to this phenomenon when they are governing. The literature has underlined the fact that RRPP in power may influence policy-making regarding immigration or law and order but has not investigated the responses of mainstream parties to RRPP regarding the democratic issue. Yet, it is of primary importance since the crisis of representative democracy is one of the most important explanatory factors of the development of RRPP. Based on the Belgian case and on data collected via archives research (party manifestoes and public decisions) and 35 interviews with elected officials and party leaders, the article shows that RRPP do not influence mainstream parties regarding the democratic issue. None of the RRPP’s proposals in terms of democracy has been translated into public decisions in the last ten years. This lack of influence can be explained based on two factors. The first one is related to a strategy adopted by RRPP and the other one to a strategy adopted by mainstream parties themselves. The loss of the issue ownership but also the demonization whose RRPP suffer from are key elements in the explanation