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Annual Review of Political Science

Volume 22, 2019

Center-Right Political Parties in Advanced Democracies

Abstract

This review proposes a comparative research agenda on center-right parties in advanced democracies, bringing together research in American and comparative politics. Political scientists have recently closely examined the decline of the center-left and the rise of the radical right but have paid less attention to the weakening of center-right parties. Yet cohesive center-right parties have facilitated political stability and compromises, while their disintegration has empowered radical challengers. After presenting an overview of right-wing politics in Western democracies and weighing different definitions of the electoral right, we discuss two factors that shape variations in center-right cohesion: organizational robustness of center-right partisan institutions and the (un)bundling of conservative mass attitudes on different policy dimensions. Last, we argue that a full account of the rise of the radical right cannot focus solely on the strategies of the center-left but must incorporate also the choices, opportunities, and constraints of center-right parties.

Keyword(s): center-right, conservatism, parties, party systems, radical right
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2019-05-11
2024-04-19
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Center-Right Political Parties in Advanced Democracies
Annual Review of Political Science 22, 17 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-090717-092750
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/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-090717-092750
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