CHAPTER I: Introduction: The Italian Political Landscape: From Post-World War II to 2020 CHAPTER II: Defining Populism: The Uniqueness and Significance of the Italian Political Context CHAPTER III: Political Parties & Competition in Italy: ‘Mainstream’ Traditional vs. ‘Populist’ Parties CHAPTER IV: Electoral Volatility & Fragmentation: Post-2018 Italian General Election Political Context CHAPTER V: Transnational Cleavages: A Case Study Analysis of Fratelli d’Italia CHAPTER VI: Implications for the future of Italian Politics: Post-COVID-19 World CHAPTER VII: Implications for the future of Populism & Populist Radical Right Parties in Western Europe: A Comparative Approach

Far-right parties appear to be updating their electoral strategies throughout the series of crises from the 2008-2013 economic crisis, the 2015-2018 refugee crisis, and on to the 2020-present COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst a focus on the key issue dimension of immigration as an electoral strategy continues to serve as the raison d’etre of far-right politics, newer strategies are being introduced to mobilise supporters, such as the post-materialist issue of environmentalism (i.e.: eco-nationalism/eco-fascism), with increasing success. We therefore ask: to what extent are far-right party strategies in Europe being updated across these crises and does this translate into electoral success for far-right parties? Using both qualitative case studies and quantitative analysis, we examine far-right parties’ electoral strategies in Western Europe (Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom) and Central-Eastern Europe (Hungary and Poland). Our preliminary evidence identifies both the evolving strategies of modern far-right parties in three different crisis situations and that these crises create distinct and unique political opportunities for the far-right party family to benefit from electorally.

Contemporary center right parties in Europe are often known for their ideological focus on 'bread and butter' issues such as the free market economy and law and order, alongside their promotion of traditional institutions and values in society. However, the strategies they use to emphasize the immigration issue are less discussed in academic literature, as are the issue's electoral implications for this party family in different economic contexts across the 21st century. The central research question of this dissertation investigates the electoral success of center right parties and how they are able to prosper electorally from emphasizing immigration in different economic contexts, often at the expense of populist radical right parties. The dissertation focuses on center right parties rather than the center left, as the center right is spatially and ideologically closer to the populist radical right on a number of issues. This theory is then tested in three separate empirical chapters (Chapters 5, 6 and 7), which draws on the ParlGov dataset on European national parliamentary elections that has been merged with the Whitefield-Rohrschneider expert survey on party positions. The Chapel Hill Expert Survey data is also utilized. Chapter 7 comprises a case study analysis of four research cases derived from the results of the large N comparative analysis in Chapter 5. The dissertation argues that there may be a 'new electoral winning formula' in the 21st century, whereby specific center right parties profit electorally through strategically emphasizing the immigration issue, rather than on traditional issues such as law and order alongside the free market that the center right tend to be more historically associated with. These findings have implications for contemporary party politics, in showing the potential for center right parties to perform electorally well on the immigration issue and has important implications for the state of contemporary liberal democracy across Europe.