Dimensions of the Political Space: Radical Right Parties’ Success and Impact on Public Policies

Traditionally, radical parties have been categorized as niche parties in a two dimensional political space. However, this approach fails to provide a comprehensible framework for understanding of the unprecedented electoral success of the "new" radical parties (NRPs) in present-day Europe. This study suggests that the contemporary sphere of politics should be regarded as multidimensional, whereas each dimension includes a number of parties which promote the same issue.

The impact of NRPs on European policies during the past three decades has remained the least examined, too. Focusing on different dimensions of the political sphere and issue competition I aim to clarify in this paper under what conditions NRPs become successful and have impact on public policies.