Replication Data for: Legitimize or Delegitimize? Mainstream Party Strategy toward (Former) Pariah Parties and How Voters Respond

Mainstream parties have often shifted from initially portraying new competitors as undemocratic pariahs (i.e., a delegitimizing strategy) to portraying the same parties later as democratic (i.e., a legitimizing strategy). I argue that voters follow mainstream parties’ legitimizing strategies in their legitimacy evaluations of these parties. I investigate this argument with two independent survey experiments and a quantitative media content analysis in two countries that differ sharply in the nature of party competition – from mainstream parties delegitimizing a far-right party (i.e., Germany) to mainstream parties legitimizing it (i.e., Sweden). I find strong evidence that (a) mainstream parties can effectively legitimize pariah parties in the eyes of voters, (b) turning back to delegitimization has little effect, (c) legitimization is no less effective in the face of a third party’s delegitimizing strategy, and (d) legitimization resonates beyond co-partisans. The results suggest that mainstream party legitimization of pariah parties has far-reaching consequences.

主流政党的策略往往会发生转变：最初将新兴竞争对手塑造为非民主的贱民式政党（即去合法化策略），后续又将同类政党描绘为民主政党（即合法化策略）。本研究提出，选民在对这类政党开展合法性评估时，会遵循主流政党所采用的合法化策略。本研究依托两项独立的调查实验与定量媒体内容分析，针对两个政党竞争模式差异显著的国家验证这一论点——前者的主流政党曾对极右翼政党采取去合法化策略（德国），后者的主流政党则转而对极右翼政党实施合法化策略（瑞典）。本研究得到了多项强有力的实证证据：其一，主流政党能够有效帮助选民将贱民式政党重新合法化；其二，转而重回去合法化策略几乎无显著效果；其三，即便面临第三方政党的去合法化策略，合法化策略仍能发挥同等效力；其四，合法化策略的影响范围远超同党派选民群体。研究结果表明，主流政党对贱民式政党的合法化举措将产生深远影响。