This study focuses on the effects of ostracism on party discourse. By examining whether the rhetoric of radical right parties about ‘others’ (i.e., referring to democracy, its institutions and...Show moreThis study focuses on the effects of ostracism on party discourse. By examining whether the rhetoric of radical right parties about ‘others’ (i.e., referring to democracy, its institutions and political parties) has changed after an experience of exclusion, this study aims to determine whether the discourse tends to radicalise or moderate. A qualitative content analysis of 1,000 tweets from two excluded radical right parties in the Netherlands - the PVV (Party for Freedom) and FVD (Forum for Democracy) - and their front men in different periods has shown that their discourse became more radical after their exclusion from coalition negotiations. In addition, the results indicate that the measured effects are more pronounced with the first exclusion than with a subsequent exclusion.Show less
In this paper, I observe policy changes by established parties which react strategically to new right challengers with a hard stance on migration/integration policies. By assessing parliamentary...Show moreIn this paper, I observe policy changes by established parties which react strategically to new right challengers with a hard stance on migration/integration policies. By assessing parliamentary speech data in a quantitative text analysis with Wordscores in combination with a manual content analysis, I contribute to the ongoing debate of how and when mainstream parties change their positions on the migration/integration dimension. I focus on Germany from 2011 – 2018 to evaluate the effect of the new right challenger “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) which became successful in the light of the so called ‘refugee crisis’. Both the quantitative text analysis and the manual content analysis find no effect for established parties before the AfD entered the parliament and observe a clear adversarial strategy of left Parties when the AfD entered parliament.Show less
