| dc.description.abstract | There is a vast literature on the decline of party membership within European democracies, which is manifested in declining membership figures. Despite this trend, several parties on the far right, including Norway’s Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, FrP) and Denmark’s People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti, DF), have experienced positive membership growth. This reminds us, among other things, that populist right parties are not short-lived, which contradicts many scholars in the field. However, academic research on the relationship between party members and the populist right is scarce. This is confirmed by Cas Mudde (2016). This thesis aims to further our knowledge on the social profile, enrollment, motivation and attitudes of FrP and DF members, which is accomplished by combining general literature on party membership and literature on far right organizations. Through a direct comparison between the two cases and an indirect comparison between FrP and DF, on the one hand, and other national parties, on the other, this study examines to what extent FrP and DF can be regarded as twin cases on the basis of their members. The theoretical framework of this thesis is formed by available research, combining membership literature with literature on far right parties. Statistical analyses of the 2012 Danish membership survey and the 2016 Norwegian membership survey are utilized to answer the research question and hypothesis. The first part of the analysis is descriptive, whereas the second part presents the results of the binary logistic regression analyses. Lastly, multinomial regression analyses are presented as a robustness check. My results confirm previous research on some characteristics of FrP and DF members, and underlines new findings on others. Except from the age composition, the current social profile of FrP and DF members seem to remain similarly compared to earlier findings. Moreover, compared to other party members within the respective countries, the close environment of FrP and DF members is of little importance for their enrollment. In line with the vast majority of party members, regardless of affiliation, moral-minded members dominate Norway and Denmark’s far right. Examining attitudes and political opinions, members of FrP and DF seem to reproduce the standard picture of politics at the parliamentary level. Deviation between the cases is detected when examining economic issues. | eng |