Building from Scratch? Supply-side Factors in the Success of the AfD

• In Event: Comparative Party-Building in Tumultuous Times

Abstract

With the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a populist radical right party was founded in February 2013, which was able gain mandates in all German Landtage and in the Bundestag within four years. The rise of the AfD is particularly relevant because Germany is a “late bloomer” in the context of the European populist radical right. For decades, the Federal Republic seemed immune to parties on the right of the mainstream. It is thus not surprising that the rapid and sustained success of the AfD has led to an extensive debate about its causes both in academia and the political public that continue to this day. While one strand dealt with its initially ambivalent ideological positioning, especially in the initial phase of the party, another discusses the socio-economic and individual factors that determine the voting decision of AfD voters. So far, the networks underlying the AfD have not been much investigated. However, work published on this topic shows that the AfD’s success can also be traced back to networks and affiliated organizations, which began to organize in the wake of the Maastricht Treaty in the early 1990s. The networking of different actors resulted in the association “Wahlalternative 2013” in the end of 2012, which led to the founding of the AfD only after the Lower Saxony state election. Also, the manifestation of the radical right profile after the 2013 general election can be explained by the party’s supporting networks.

Author

• Marcel Lewandowsky, University of Florida