In this study we assess policy representation by populist radical right (PRR) parties in ten West European countries. Going beyond aggregate left-right or socio-cultural (GAL-TAN) dimensions of political conflict, we study representation on policy issues related to the PRR parties’ core ideological features nativism, populism, and authoritarianism. Analysing data from party expert and voter surveys, we find that the PRR parties provide largely unique policy positions that are congruent with their voters’ preferences in terms of their opposition to immigration and the European Union. By contrast, the parties are less representative in terms of their value conservative and authoritarian positions on gay rights and civil liberties. The findings have relevance for our understanding of party strategy, voter behaviour, and the dimensionality of political competition.

The Nordic states – Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland 1 – have provided fertile terrain for populism, which is understood here as a ‘thin’ ideology ‘that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups – “the pure people” versus the “corrupt elite”, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale’ (Mudde 2004: 543). Populism embraces an anti-establishment position and an idea of two homogenous groups that stand in an antagonistic relationship to one another: ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’. As an ‘empty container’, the ‘people’ can refer to the citizens (demos), ‘our people’ (ethnos) and the ‘ordinary people’ (the ‘common man’) (Canovan 1999). This thin-centred ideology can and ultimately must combine with other ideologies to develop into electorally attractive alternatives. Historically, populism has manifested itself in and married with different, ‘fuller’ ideologies. Consequently, populism can be left- and right-wing – and even agrarian populism.