著者
譚 天
出版者
千葉大学公共学会
雑誌
公共研究 = Journal on public affairs (ISSN:18814859)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.16, no.1, pp.237-286, 2020-03

The Mainstreaming of the Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs) refers to one of the critical phenomena in the current West European party politics. Since PRRPs usually attempt to increase their electoral fortunes by pledging "Political Innovation", this study primarily aimed to delve into the actual impact of PRRPs on the "Quality of Government" (QoG) as coalition partners of local and/or national government in eleven West European countries. First, the definition of the QoG is clarified. Impartiality on the "output" side of the political process, i.e., in the exercise of public authority, should be considered the super ordinate concept of QoG. Second, PRRPsʼ impact on the "input" side of political process, consisting of policy making and decision, is analyzed. In contrast to traditional views, PRRPs as coalition partners are capable of making highly popular and successful social policies in favor of the poor and needy. Third, due to the rare existing studies on this topic, I outline populist governmentsʼ impact on the QoG worldwide. It accordingly seems that populist governments are inclined to adversely affect the QoG. Fourth, the hypothesis is proposed that PRRPs governments, similar to populist governments, will also adversely affect the QoG. To test the hypothesis, methods of "correlation analysis", "multiple regression analysis", and "principal component analysis" are employed. The findings of qualitative and quantitative analyses suggest that PRRPs have more negative rather than positive impact on the QoG, in particular the "State Robustness", "Checks and Balances", "Government Effectiveness", as well as "Degree of Corruption" aspects. As a result, though PRRPs assert themselves as alternatives of "corrupt", "inefficient", and "unrepresentative" traditional parties, it has been rarely evidenced that PRRPs as coalition partners will "reform" the establishment and subsequently facilitate the QoG.