Introduction

As we have observed in Chapter 1, the political mobilization of the latent structural potentials constituted by the challenge of globalization gives rise to two interdependent dynamics – the transformation of both the basic structure of the national political space and the parties' positioning within the transforming space. On the one hand, parties react to the political conflicts and the associated preferences developing in the electorate and articulate them in the political arena. In this way, they restructure the political space. On the other hand, the individual parties position themselves strategically within the emerging spatial configuration of their competitors in the transformed space. According to our basic hypothesis, the parties who appeal to the preferences of the ‘losers’ of globalization constitute the driving force of the current transformation of the Western European party systems. We propose that the initial electoral success of these parties set in motion the transformation of the dimensional structure and the repositioning of the established parties within the transforming structure, which, in turn, contributes to the ongoing transformation of the dimensions of the political space.

As outlined in Chapter 2, there are a number of processes which contribute to the functional dealignment in Western European party systems, i.e. to a greater detachment of the voters from the parties in general. Thus, we agree with Kitschelt (2000: 164) and other authors that parties are, much more than they used to be, confronted with political preferences which result from exogenously determined, spontaneous developments in the electorate or from activities of independent media and political entrepreneurs who operate outside of the parliamentary arena.