Do mainstream parties adopt more populist language when challenger parties using it are successful? The impact of UKIP’s electoral success, culminating in the 2014 European elections, on the language of UK mainstream parties in the 2010-2015 period

Thesis

This thesis explores the impact of the successful use of populism by challenger parties on mainstream parties in a political system: do mainstream parties adopt more populist language themselves in response? Focusing on the UK, and with UKIP’s increased electoral success culminating in the 2014 European elections as the independent variable, levels of populist language of mainstream parties (Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats) are compared in the 2010 and 2015 general elections. A mixed-methods approach is used. Firstly, party conference speeches for the two time-periods are coded using qualitative content analysis to establish whether there was an increase in levels of populism for each of the three mainstream parties. Secondly, two approaches are applied to test the causal link of this change to the independent variable: process tracing using evidence from elite interviews, and qualitative content analysis of election leaflets in a sample of constituencies which faced varying levels of UKIP threat in 2014/2015.

Authors: Stephenson, K

• Type of award: MPhil
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: populism
• Subjects: Politics