Ethnic - Civic Distinction: Does It Distinguish Radical Right Party Family? The Cases of Sweden and Turkey.

Abstract

What we have seen in today’s political conjuncture in Europe is that radical right parties are applying to a civic discourse more and more everyday. The more they seem civic, the more they get legitimized in the sight of people. The more they get legitimized, the more they become successful in elections. However, despite a civic discourse, these parties continue their exclusionary agendas. Therefore, this study asks if ethno-nationalism, in contrast to civic nationalism-, is the distinguishing ideological trait of radical right party family. The main problematic of this study is if ethnic nationalism – civic nationalism distinction should be considered as a good analytical tool to distinguish radical right party family from other party families. In order to answer these questions, Sweden Democrats and Moderate Party from Sweden, and Nationalist Movement Party and Republican People’s Party from Turkey were chosen to assess over a comparison. Radical right and non-radical right parties were identified according to party family methods and their party programs were interpreted and compared to find out the convergences in terms of nationalist appeals. The convergences of different party families that were found out both in civic and ethnic discourses pointed out the fact that ethnic – civic distinction might not be a sufficient tool to distinguish radical right party family.