Introduction

In recent years, liberal democracies across the globe have witnessed the rise of far-right populism, with many countries being governed by far-right populist leaders. While the effects of far-right populist governments on changes in immigration policies and democratic-backsliding tendencies are well substantiated, we know little about the economic policy outcomes. In the exceptional case of Austria, the far-right populist Freedom Party played a significant role in the neoliberalization of the country. By providing a historical and discursive account of the unprecedented case of the Freedom Party from its foundation until their last governmental role in 2017, the book traces the long-term effects of far-right populism through the institutionalization of exclusionary neoliberalism in Austria. In doing so, the book provides an insight on the impact of far-right populism on economic policy change, the implications of which are of significance beyond the Austrian case. The introductory chapter challenges the conventional dichotomy between cultural and economic explanations for far-right populism’s rise and impact by providing a constructivist approach to capture the interplay between cultural and economic ideas in discourse.