Non-Partisan Groups in German Local Politics: Between Populism and “Politics as Usual”?
Keywords:
non-partisan groups, independent local lists, local parties, populism, antiestablishment parties, local politicsAbstract
The article aims to give an overview of the current state of research concerning the presence and success of German non-partisan groups in local politics. It can be shown that their presence in German municipalities rose between 2008 and 2015, so they are active in more than 80 per cent of all municipalities up to now. The author also focuses on the current problems of definition for international comparison and raises the question whether or not it is useful to analyse these local groups within the concept of populism (Barr 2009) and anti-establishment parties (Schedler 1996). Special attention is given to possible spill-over effects from successful anti-party rhetoric of non-partisan groups in local politics to higher levels of the political systemDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17072/2218-1067-2015-3-127-148References
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