The impact of economic Dualisation on party competition in Contemporary Europe

The demise of traditional established parties and the rise of new issues (often stemming from the New Left and the new populist right) indicate that new parties try to mobilize outsiders against the established parties. Will they be successful in the long run and replace the current established parties in parliament and government? This paper seeks to analyse the degree to which the insider-outsider divide impacts on the structure of party competition in Europe after 2002. It will be argued that, although an insider-outsider divide does exist, it has had a moderate effect on party competition. The reasons are that the group of outsiders is smaller than is often assumed and this group is hard to mobilise due to non-voting behaviour and indistinct policy preferences