Abstract:
Independent local parties have been on the rise in recent elections in the Netherlands,
Germany and Scandinavian countries. Despite previous predictions that they would disappear,
these small political parties, only competing on the local level of government, have persisted.
New ones have even appeared. Knowledge on their ideology is limited, but they are
sometimes referred to as populist or at least more populist then national parties. Theorizing
that dictionary methods do not differentiate between close but distinct ideologies, ‘localism’ is
proposed as an alternative ideological characterization. Looking at Dutch local parties in the
2018 election, a content-analysis is performed on party programs to test whether these parties
are ideologically better identified as populist or localist. Taking 29 cases, we find that no local
parties are truly populist, while a few are localist. Additionally, we find that some local
parties mix morality-references with community-centrism. Localism centers around a strong
connection to the local community combined with a perceived difference between local and
national politics. We also conclude that populism might be better conceived as centering
around the relationship between the people and the elite, rather than the people or the elite
themselves.
