Impact of interaction between demand and supply factors on the electoral success of radical right parties in western europe

Impact of Interaction Between Demand and Supply Factors on the Electoral Success of Radical Right Parties in Western Europe This work studies the kind of impact interaction between supply and demand factors have on electoral success of radical right-wing parties. Academic literature regarding radical right-wing parties’ electoral success suggests that authors studying success of such parties cannot provide apparent answers. Disagreements arise not only due to the influence of supply and demand factors’ groups on radical left parties’ electorial success, but also because of the individual impact of factors belonging to these groups. Based on Matt Golder’s theoretical assumptions, both supply-side and demand-side factors are included in the study. A fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis is employed to determine what kind of supply and demand configurations could be associated with electorial success of radical right parties in Western European countries. The following are objectives of the study: to introduce key attributes of radical right parties; to present the model of interaction between supply and demand; to examine theoretical assumptions in academia on which impact of interaction between supply and demand factors on the electoral success of radical right parties depends on; building on theoretical assumptions, to select possibly interacting supply and demand factors; to collect information about how the selected factors manifest in Western European countries included in the study; to conduct fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. This paper hypothesizes that Western European radical right parties are electorially more successful in countries that have: H1: Higher scale of immigrants. H2: Higher level of unemployment. H3: Higher level of political distrust. H4: Higher convergence of the main left and right parties. Qualitative comparative analysis suggests that only the first and the fourth hypotheses are somewhat verified and Matt Golder’s theoretical assumptions that radical right parties are only successful if both supply and demand factors are present - are left unfounded. This paper is significant because it opens a new niche in the area of political science and raises new questions: does low level of unemployment and low level of political distrust actually helpradical left parties earn more electors’ votes? Further research on this topic should include additional supply and demand group factors not mentioned in this study