Поширення політики популізму та зміни ідеологічного простору у країнах Європи

Брайчевський, Ю. С. (2019). Поширення політики популізму та зміни ідеологічного простору у країнах Європи. Географія та туризм, (52), 52–59. https://doi.org/10.17721/2308-135x.2019.52.52-59

Aim: To perform the geographic analysis of the socio-political context of mass spread of populist movements in European countries and to trace its impact on the ideological space in the European region. Methodology: The paper is based upon the historical-geographic overview of the pre-conditions framing the political and party systems development in European countries in the second half of the XXth century, analysis of populism spread dynamics across European states and speculation on the factors conditioning rapid populism spread becoming a major political trend f the recent years. Empirical data on the level of support of the populist parties in European countries is borrowed from the Swedish analytical think-tank TIMBRO, which compiles the authoritarian populism index for European states and provides data on the support level for populist parties of various parts of the political spectrum. We used the methodology of the T.Blair Institute for Global Change for classifying populist political forces in Europe. Results: The article presents the analysis of the key trends and dynamics of the electoral support for populist parties in the number of European states and a historical-geographic overview of the development of the political and party systems in the European countries in the post-War period. Also, it contains the analysis of the contextual factors of populism electoral support, namely those related to the changes in relations between political elites and their base electorate as well as those related to the changes in the external environment of political system development. Academic novelty: The article suggests employing theoretical perspectives of B.Moore (social origins of democratic institutes and evolution of the relations between political elites and their electorates) and S.M.Lipsett-S.Rokkan (development of the major socio-political cleavages in European states) while searching for explanations of the populist parties growing support. That is employing the terms of structural analysis of the party elites, their material, social and value base as well as historical and geographic context of their development. Practical significance: Ukraine faces similar to other European countries challenges of mass populism. The search for efficient strategies of countering this phenomenon requires comprehensive analysis of the European experience as well as comparison of the Ukrainian context and factors determining political party system and ways of electorate mobilization with the analogous features of the political space in the European states.