Associate Professor in Political Science (on leave 2009-2010)
Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies of the University of Notre Dame (June 2009 - May 2010)
Teaching areas:
- Comparative politics
- European politics (East and West)
- Parties and party systems
- Methods and research design
- Political extremism
Current research interests:
- Populism in Europe and Latin America
- US conservatisms in comparative perspective
- Political parties, in particular party families
- Extremism and democracy
- Contested concepts and comparative data sets
- The relationship between (un)civil society and democracy/democratization
- 'Europe' as a political issue in national politics
Current and former PhD students (all at the University of Antwerp):- Jan Jagers, "De stem van het Volk! Populisme als concept getest bij Vlaamse politieke partijen", PhD awarded in February 2006 (freelance journalist/lecturer Erasmus Hogeschool Brussel) - Sarah De Lange, "From Pariah to Power: Explanations for the Government Participation of Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in West European Parliamentary Democracies", PhD awarded in June 2008 (assistant professor, University of Amsterdam) - Sivan Hirsch-Hoefler, "Settle for Nothing: The Mobilization Strategies of the Israeli Settlement Movement", PhD awarded in December 2008 (adjunct professor Haifa University). - Natalya Krasnoboka, "Testing the Limits of the Possible: Media Logic in Transition Societies", PhD expected in 2009. - Joz Motmans, "Op brakke grond: leven in de marges van gendertheorie en sociale bewegingen. Casestudie: de Vlaamse transgenderbeweging", PhD expected in 2009. - Lien Warmenbol, "Wijken voor het VB: een etnografische studie van het succes van radicaal-rechtse populistische partijen op buurtniveau", PhD expected in 2010.
I am the founder and former convener of the ECPR Standing Group on Extremism & Democracy, and founder and former co-editor of the Routledge Studies in Extremism & Democracy book series, which has published almost fifteen books under my tenure, on topics such as terrorism in the US, extremism and terrorism, freedom of speech, and extreme right activists. I am also a board member of the IPSA Committee on Concepts and Methods and serve or have served on the Editorial Boards of Acta Politica, Democracy and Security, Patterns of Prejudice, Politics in Central Europe, The Journal of Politics, and Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions.
I have published two single-authored books. My most recent book Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe was published by Cambridge University Press in September 2007. It is out in both hardback and paperback. The book addresses three main aspects of (the study of) populist radical right parties in both parts of Europe: conceptualizations, issues, and explanations. It was awarded the XIIIth Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research (2008) by the ISSC/ECPR and was named Outstanding Academic Title by Choice in 2008.
In September 2009 Political Studies Review, the reviews journal of the British Political Studies Association published a symposium on the book with contributions by Matthew Goodwin (University of Manchester), Paul Lucardie (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), and Andrej Zaslove (University of Nijmegen). So, far the book has been reviewed in the following academic journals (in brackets the most flattering quotes, obviously taken out of context):
* e-Extreme, Vol.9, No.1, 2008
("a milestone in the study of the contemporary radical right")
* The Journal of Politics, Vol.70, No.2, April 2008, pp.561-2
("a benchmark for future studies of the radical right")
* Choice, Vol.45, No.3, May 2008
("Overall, a very thorough, careful, insightful, and impressive work")
* Perspectives on Politics, Vol.6, No.2, June 2008, pp.407-9
("a major work offering an indispensable road map for future research on populism and right-wing politics in contemporary Europe")
* Political Studies Review, Vol.6, No.3, September 2008, pp.393-4
("invaluable to any scholar or student working within this field")
* Acta Politica, Vol.43, No.4, December 2008, pp.501-3
("the most stimulating book published on this much-researched topic since [Kitschelt & McGann 1995]")
* The Review of Politics, Vol.71, No.1, Winter 2009, pp.157-9
("an impressive piece of work that fulfils the goal Mudde initially set forth for the book")
I have further (co-)edited a special issue with Renske Doorenspleet (University of Warwick) and Petr Kopecky (Leiden University) ("Deviant Democracies: Democratization Against All Odds", Democratization, Volume 15, No.4, October 2008) and five books: Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe (Routledge, 2005), (with Roger Eatwell) Western Democracies and the New Extreme Right Challenge (Routledge, 2004), (with Petr Kopecký) Uncivil Society? Contentious Politics in Post-Communist Europe (Routledge, 2002), and (both with Joop van Holsteyn) Democratie in verval? (Boom, 2002), and Extreem-rechts in Nederland (sdu, 1998).
I have recently finished two pieces: a review article on US conservatisms, to be published in The Journal of Politics in April 2010, and an entry on "Neoconservatism" for the Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought (to be published in 2011). At the moment, I'm finishing three pieces. The first is a revised version of my working paper published in the Willy Brandt Series of Working Papers in International Migration and Ethnic Relations, "The Populist Radical Right: A Pathological Normalcy", accepted for publication in West European Politics. The second is a review
article on the study of Euroskepticism, provisionally entitled "North
Carolina vs. Sussex: The Study of Euroskepticism", to be published in West European Politics. And the third is an entry on "Right-Wing Movements" for The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements.
Current research projects:
After a variety of different smaller projects on different topics, including conservatism, democratization and Euroskepticism, I am now returning to a variety of larger projects within two broad fields: populism and political methodology. Both are long-term interests and I intend to work on aspects of them over the coming years, both in collaborations and alone.
Populism:
Obviously, my interest in the phenomenon of populism is to be found in my earlier work on the radical right. However, in future work I want to go well beyond the constraints of my earlier work. First and foremost, I will look at populism in all its guises; left, right and center, movements and parties, democratic and undemocratic. Second, I will look beyond the European boundaries, focusing also on populism in the Americas, i.e. North and South America. Third, I will focus more explicitly on the ambivalent relationship between populism and democracy (and democratization), trying to tease out under which conditions populism can be least threatening (or even most conducive) to (liberal) democracy and the process of democratization. Concretely, this larger research agenda consists of (at least) four projects at this moment:
Populism: An Introduction
Despite the fact that populism has been discussed in a variety of historical periods and georgraphical settings, there are few books that address the phenomenon in general; rather than specific forms in specific settings (notably right-wing populism in Wetsren Europe). This booklet sets out to provide a basic understanding of the key actors, ideas, leaders, and theories of populism. Unlike earlier attempts, it will present a clear definition of populism (see Mudde 2004, 2007). In addition, it will debate the complex relationship between populism and democracy. The primary intended audience are students and scholars, but the
booklet will also be accessible to interested non-academics. A book
proposal is currently reviewed by the editors of the Very Short Introduction series of Oxford University Press.
To the Left, To the Right: As visiting fellow at the Kellog Institute for International Studies of the University of Notre Dame I will work on a research project provisionally entitled To the Left? To the Right? Populisms in Europe and Latin America Compared. The aim is to come to broader theoretical insights about the generic phenomenon of populism, by comparing the recent manifestations in two different regions of the globe. Most notably, I ask the question why contemporary populism is associated with the left in Latin America, yet with the right in Europe. Also, why does the economy seem secondary in populist parties in Europe, yet primary in populist movements in Latin America, and identity primary in Europe, yet secondary in Latin America? The minimal goal of the project is to develop it into a Kellog Institute Working Paper, though I might develop it into a book project.
Populism in Europe and the Americas: Threat of Corrective for Democracy?
This is a collaborative project with Cristóbal Rivera Kaltwasser ( WZB Berlin) on the relationship between populism and democracy. So far, this relationship has been mainly discussed at the normative level, where most authors simply state that populism is a threat to democracy, while some argue that it can (also) be a corrective. We aim to study the relationship between populism and democracy in an empirical way by focusing on cases in Europe (East and West) and the Americas (North and South). Hopefully the first draft of papers will be discussed during a workshop in Berlin in early August 2010. The final result will be an English language edited volume to be published by a reputable academic publisher. The Voice of the PeopleSo far studies of populism have focused exclusively at the elite level, i.e. at populist leaders, movements, and parties. All theories explain their success and their actions. Many authors would argue that populism at the mass level is irrelevant at best, impossible at worst; particularly those that see it as an elite strategy to win support. However, if populism is to be seen as a (thin-centered) ideology, it can exist at the mass level. This project, together with Tom Mustillo ( IUPUI) will look at individuals holding populist attitudes; who are they? what are their political preferences? what is their position toward (liberal) democracy?
Political Methodology:
Roughly stated, I am interested in everything that takes place between theory development and the actual analysis of data. In other words, my main concerns are conceptualization, operationalization, and data selection; aspects of political methodology that receive too little attention in contemporary (quantitative) political science. In the coming years I hope to develop various larger projects on these aspects of political methodology, mostly through the IPSA Committee on Concepts and Methods.
The Numbers We Use, The World We See:
As part of the 2008 ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, which was hosted by the Université de Rennes 1 in April 2008, Andreas Schedler ( CIDE, Mexico City) and I convened a workshop entitled "The Numbers We Use, the World We See: Evaluating Cross-National Data Sets in Comparative Politics". This is part of a broader project on the evaluation of cross-national datsets and the problems of operationalization, which also includes two panels at the 2008 APSA Annual Meeting. A small selection of five of the (revised) ECPR papers, including our own article "Data Usage in Quantitative Comparative Politics: An Empirical Assessment", will be published as a mini-symposium in Political Research Quarterly in June 2010. Conceptualization, Operationalization and Measurement in Political Science (COMPS)Questions of conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement and crucial to political science, not only to quantitative political science. Unfortunately, very little theoretical attention is given to it. Moreover, much of the intellectual work that is done on these issues never make it into the journals and published books, as editors will consider these secondary at best, irrelevant at worst. Consequently, much knowledge is lost, and people are forced to invent the wheel over and over again. The prime aim of COMPS is to set up an infrastructure to share information on these issues and to publish good work on conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement. At the moment, I am looking into a variety of options (from journal to website) as well as a variety of partners (with APSA, ECPR, IPSA).
Long-term side project:
In the coming years I will also be working (on and off) on a monograph, provisionally entitled Oi! The Politics, which will analyze the main political positions expressed in Oi! music. Oi! is a music genre that is difficult to define and delineate; some even argue it is the commercial invention of one man, Garry Bushell. It is sometimes described as skinhead music, street punk, or working class punk. Among the major Oi acts of the heydays (roughly the 1980s) are bands like Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, Cock Sparrer, and Sham 69, and "people's poets" like Attila the Stockbroker and Gary Johnson. The book will focus mainly on the political views of British Oi acts in the explosive period of the late 1970s and 1980s with political events like the miners strike and Margaret Thatcher's "iron rule".
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