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Call for Abstract | GRadical Left Parties in Crisis: Analysing Multiple Fractures, Strategies, and Futures

Publié le 15 janvier 2026 – Mis à jour le 15 janvier 2026


Online conference

Date: 2 April 2026


Radical Left Parties in Crisis: Analysing Multiple Fractures, Strategies, and Futures

 
The European radical left is at a critical juncture. After the electoral expansion following the 2008 financial crisis, radical left parties (RLPs) across Europe now face unprecedented challenges: declining militant engagement, the loss of ideological coherence, contradictions between electoral positioning and grassroots expectations, and strategic dilemmas when accessing power at local and national levels. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has further exposed profound fractures within the radical left, forcing parties to renegotiate foundational commitments to pacifism, anti-imperialism, and international solidarity.
 
This webinar brings together scholars studying the radical left through complementary analytical lenses, discourse analysis, political sociology of militantism, municipal governance, and strategic framing, to map these contemporary crises and understand how different dimensions of radical left politics interact and contradict.
 
THEMATIC AXES and KEY QUESTIONS:
 
We invite abstracts that examine the following five thematic areas.
 
AXIS 1: MILITANCY AND INTERNAL PLURALISM
 
Contemporary radical left parties face a structural tension between street-level activists prioritizing ideological consistency and institutional role-holders navigating bureaucratic constraints. This coexistence generates ongoing conflict within party structures rather than a simple "decline of activism."
 
  1. How do different radical left parties institutionalize relations between grassroots activists and parliamentarians/municipal councillors? What formal and informal mechanisms exist?
  2. When radical left parties take institutional positions, which policy decisions trigger the most acute tensions between activists and institutional representatives?
  3. How do extraparliamentary movements (climate justice, anti-racism, Palestine solidarity) interact with party structures? Do they strengthen or challenge internal cohesion?
 
AXIS 2: MUNICIPAL POWER AND THE GOVERNANCE DILEMMA
 
Radical left municipalities across Europe face the contradiction of operating within neo liberal municipal governance while claiming anti-systemic ideology. The question is not individual compromission but how structural constraints reshape political practice.
 
Key Questions:
  1. How do radical left municipalities operationalize concepts like "socialism," "anti-capitalism," or "radical democracy" when confronting fiscal constraints and legal or institutional limitations?
  2. Do radical left-governed municipalities produce measurably different policy outcomes compared to other municipalities on redistribution, housing, public services, or participatory mechanisms?
  3. How do radical left parties navigate coalitions with moderate left or green parties? Do these alliances lead to ideological dilution or productive compromise?
  4. When radical left municipalities fail to deliver on radical promises, how do activists and voters respond? What happens to party legitimacy?

AXIS 3: IDEOLOGICAL GAPS AND BLIND SPOTS
 
Radical left parties lack developed positions on national identity, security, migration, technology, and ecological transformation. These strategic silences create political vulnerabilities and allow other actors to occupy the space.
 
Key Questions:
  1. On which policy domains do radical left parties maintain strategic silence? Why are some issues theoretically underdeveloped compared to others?
  2. How do radical left parties position themselves on migration and border politics? Do they develop alternative frameworks or remain ambiguous?
  3. Compared to Green parties on ecology or social democrats on security, why have radical left parties been less effective at translating their values into compelling policy platforms?

AXIS 4: FOREIGN POLICY DISCOURSE UNDER PRESSURE
 
Geopolitical crises, from Ukraine to Palestine to the Middle East, expose fundamental divisions within the radical left-over imperialism, pacifism, military intervention, and international solidarity. Foreign policy articulations reveal the radical left's entire worldview regarding international order and anti-imperialism.

Key Questions:
  1. How do radical left parties rhetorically reconcile anti-imperialism with support for Ukrainian self-determination? What linguistic and conceptual strategies do they employ?
  2. Do radical left parties apply consistent principles across different conflicts (Palestine, Ukraine, Syria) or do they use different standards depending on geopolitical location?
  3. Have transnational radical left networks fractured over foreign policy, or do shared anti-imperialist frameworks override national differences?

Submission Guidelines:
 
 Please send your abstract (250-300 words) of your proposal in PDF or Word to: 
 
The webinar is organized by the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Cevipol) and the Université de Liège (Pragmapolis).
 
Selected papers from the conference will be considered for publication.

Scientific Committee:

Jacopo VITI, Université libre de Bruxelles - Cevipol
Jean-Michel DE WAELE, Université libre de Bruxelles - Cevipol
Thomas GOFFARD, Université de Liège, Pragmapolis