Measuring Right-Wing Populism? Evidence from the German Party System

Is there such a thing as 'right-wing populism'? Despite several qualitative and case-related attempts, only few works offer comparative designs in order to measure the extend to which parties can be estimated as 'populist' or even 'right-wing populist'. Considering the varying intensity of xenophobic, anti-elite and and anti-democratic attitudes among parties (whether framed as 'right-wing populist' or not), we shall opt for a gradual measuring method that aims to transfer well-known minimal definitions of populism and right-wing populism into an empirical technique that allows us to classify parties as 'right-wing populists'. In so doing, our approach links to recent efforts of measuring populism. In order to discuss our attempt, we shall illustrate our offer by findings from the German party system with special consideration of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) which is often named populist in the German public.