Across Europe, old and new political challengers increasingly politicize the growing public mood of the crisis of representative democracy. Manifold political claims from the left, right, and center that call for the replacement of established parties, traditional ideologies and entrenched conflict lines, but also for new modes of representative politics and the social contract suggest both a growing diversification of programmatic anti-establishment supply, as well as its increased ability to mobilize public discontent over mainstream party politics.

This panel therefore aims to discuss the continuity and transformation of anti-establishment party politics in a comparative perspective. Do the newly emerging actors differ from previous emanations of anti-establishment politics in Europe? How do mainstream challengers from the right, left, and especially “center” frame their political supply? How do these parties combine their anti-establishment appeals with other ideological traits such as nationalism or Euroscepticism? To what extent are anti-establishment actors able to mobilize different types of voters, and how does the specific voter composition influence the chances of party survival?

In order to answer these and further interrelated questions, the panel brings together theoretical and empirical contributions on the supply and demand side of anti-establishment party politics deploying both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The case studies and conceptual analyses of the panel hence contribute to a deeper comparative understanding of anti-establishment party politics both in Western, as well as in Central and Eastern Europe.