Analysis Of The Reasons For Mainstream Parties Transforming To Right-Wing Populist Parties In Western Europe

The rise of right-wing populist parties has become a challenge to mainstream political parties in Western Europe.With the emergence of right-wing populist parties in the elections and participation in the government,systemic turmoil has been triggered at home and abroad.Their success also had an important impact on the mainstream political parties in Western Europe,such as the emergence of populist tendencies among the elite of mainstream political parties and the absorption of populist issues by mainstream political parties.The most significant adjustment was the complete transformation of mainstream political parties into populist parties.Different from the "soft populism" political strategy adopted by some mainstream parties,the Swiss People’s Party and the Freedom Party of Austrian gave up their traditional positions and transformed from the mainstream establishment parties to the right-wing populist parties.Ideologically,they completely transformed into a right-wing populist party,showing obvious characteristics of right-wing populism in the organizational structure and behavior pattern.What are the reasons for the transformation of the Swiss People’s Party and the Freedom Party of Austrian?How to understand the transformation of mainstream political parties?As a new field in the study of populist parties,this paper aims to enrich the study of right-wing populist parties and party transformation by comparing and analyzing the reasons for the transformation of the two parties.Based on Cass Mulder’s theory of supply and demand,this paper analyzes the reasons for populisitization of mainstream political parties in Western Europe from two dimensions of demand side and supply side.By analyzing the influence of populism on mainstream political parties,this paper makes clear the meaning of complete populism in mainstream political parties.On this basis,two political parties that have undergone complete populism transformation are selected as cases.Before its transformation,the Swiss People’s Party was a conservative party dominated by agricultural policy.As one of the mainstream parties,it holds a seat on the Swiss Federal Council.The Freedom Party of Austrian was the first to uphold liberalism,emphasizing opposition to centralization and advocating free market economy.Since the 1980s,both parties have simultaneously transformed into right-wing populist parties that have played an important role in domestic and European politics.This paper analyzes the endogenous and exogenous factors of the two major political parties turning to right-wing populism from the perspective of supply side and demand side.Finally,by comparing and analyzing the transformation reasons and the similarities and differences in the transformation process of the two cases,the author tries to find the influencing factors of the populist transformation of mainstream political parties in Western Europe.Although the two parties have chosen similar political strategies,they also face different political opportunity conditions due to their different historical status.But the political and cultural background,the external stimulus brought by globalization and Europeanization,and the failure of the model of "consensus democracy" also provided a window for the transformation of the two parties.