Less active, less ambitious: Stigmatisation and participation in populist radical right parties

Stigmatisation is said to have detrimental effects on the development of populist radical right (PRR) party organisations, including the recruitment and retention of a membership base. In this paper, I test this claim by taking party members as units of analysis rather than parties, and ask: How do feelings of stigmatisation affect the participation of PRR grassroots members? Drawing on original membership surveys of the League in Italy and the Sweden Democrats (SD), I show that feeling stigmatised affects negatively the levels of activism and the ambition to stand as candidates of PRR party members, regardless of their party’s stigmatisation. However, it reduces the aspiration to hold intra-party offices only among SD members. By shedding light on an overlooked aspect of PRR party organisations, namely their membership bases, this paper provides unique insights into the organisational growth of the PRR party family.