Contesting the EU’s external democratization agenda: an analytical framework with an application to populist parties

Abstract

This article analyses how populist parties in power contest the external democratization agenda within the European Union (EU)’s European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). We present an analytical framework that conceptually unpacks both contestation and populism to argue that radical right, market liberal, regionalist and left-wing populist parties differ from each other concerning their views on external democratization. Our empirical focus is on the discursive strategies of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from PiS, Fidesz, Lega, Forza Italia and Movimento Cinque Stelle in European Parliament (EP) debates. The exploratory analysis reveals that populist actors rarely and selectively use the European arena for contesting democracy promotion. While an emphasis on stability and security in the neighbourhood prevails among all populist parties in our study, other considerations, such as migration policy, support for ethnic kin, suspicion towards Russia but also membership in the EP’s Party Groups inform the differences between the parties. Supplemental data for this article is available online at at.