Varieties of economic nationalism in Europe: the cases of Alternative für Deutschland and Rassemblement National

Abstract

Economic nationalism is becoming more prevalent in European politics, as far-right parties, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) of Germany and Rassemblement National (RN) of France, are on the rise and embracing economic nationalist ideologies. By examining the economic policy agendas of European far-right parties, this dissertation contributes to the study of International Political Economy and European politics by clarifying the conceptual boundaries of economic nationalism. Economic nationalism has appeared as a central component of far-right agendas, but it manifests in different forms across countries. The puzzle is especially salient and important for two of Europe’s core economies, Germany and France, where AfD and the RN have emerged as influential far-right actors. AfD and RN have different ideas about defending and advancing their national economic interests. This variation raises an important question: what are the differences between the economic nationalist ideologies of the parties that share similar political and institutional characteristics? To clarify the differences in the economic nationalist ideologies of AfD and RN, this dissertation offers a novel, comprehensive framework that identifies ii the main elements and subsets of economic nationalism: protectionism, financial nationalism, disengagement from international economic cooperation, national industrial policy, protection of domestic workers, and resistance to foreign direct investment. The dissertation employs a comparative case study design combined with qualitative textual analysis of party programmes, election manifestos, and public statements from 2012 onward. The framework enables systematic comparison of the two parties’ economic agendas and allows their ideological evolutions to be traced across the Eurozone and migration crises, both of which reshaped their political positioning. Through an analysis of the agendas of these two parties, this dissertation demonstrates that economic nationalism is not a uniform concept, and RN exhibits a much stronger form of economic nationalism than AfD.