Larissa Böckmann

Recent years have been characterized by multiple internal and external challenges to liberal democracy. One of those challenges is the rise of illiberalism, which has become a growing concern, particularly since the establishment of illiberal regimes by far-right actors in countries such as Hungary, India, and Turkey. Far-right parties in power have promoted democratic erosion, which created a proliferation of research on the illiberal regimes established by the far‐right. Less attention has been paid to far-right parties in opposition and their embrace of ideological illiberalism and how the far-rights three ideological cornerstones – nativism, authoritarianism, and often also populism - form an overarching illiberal agenda. However, even parties that are not in office can influence the quality of democracy, through the weakening of democratic norms and their impact on mainstream parties' positions. An abundance of research has demonstrated that center-right and center-left parties have responded to the rise of far-right parties by assuming stricter position on migration and asylum, welfare policies, or European integration. Yet, a systematic and comparative study of mainstream radicalization regarding their commitment to liberalism has not been undertaken yet.

This dissertation addresses the topic of ideological illiberalism and its prevalence within the transnational European far-right, but also its “contagiousness” towards mainstream parties. In a first step, I develop a measurement for far-right illiberalism in the European Parliament (EP) and analyze the development of far-right discourse in the European Parliament (EP) between 1999 and 2019. The results indicate that illiberalism is not a new feature in far-right discourse, but has been a present and relevant characteristic since the 2000s. However, a stable and coherent trend has only evolved since 2009, when the far-right consolidated its presence in the EP. From 2017, after Brexit and the election of Trump, there is a marked increase in the use of illiberal discourse.
After assessing the temporal development of far-right illiberalism in the EP, I look into differences between far-right politicians in their use of illiberalism. Building on the literature on far-right heterogeneity, party behavior and the institutional procedures within the EP, I develop an explanatory framework to analyze different degrees of illiberalism that are tested through a quantitative content analysis and multilevel regression. The results show that degrees of illiberalism are influenced by both characteristics of the individual MEP and the political party.
In a third step, I will comparatively analyze the potential radicalization of mainstream parties.