Hungary has taken its leave of democracy and has transformed itself into a dictatorship. Since Viktor Orbán was returned to the office of Prime Minister of Hungary in May 2010, he and his party Fidesz – Magyar Polgári Szövetség (Fidesz-MPSZ; Hungarian Civic Alliance) have transformed the political system of Hungary in a sustained way. Democratic… Continue reading “Hungary and the End of Democracy”
The affair might have passed relatively quickly had it not been for the success of the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the 2017 federal election. Germany’s performance in the FIFA World Cup in Russia was nothing short of a disaster. The 2014 champion came in dead last in its group, losing the final match against… Continue reading “What the Özil Affair Tells Us about Contemporary Germany”
From the Fringes The transnational radical right is growing beyond the fringes of society and politics where it once lingered and is now seeping into the mainstream. A key message to help in doing this is ant-Muslim hatred. According to many on the radical right, the global trend of Muslim migrants and Islamist terrorism… Continue reading “They’re Not All White, But All Alt-Patriots”
This article is the second in a series on network analysis of the radical right. A prior posting for the CARR blog explains how network analysis can help explain the structure of online communities. Fifty years after the “Summer of Love” transformed American youth culture, Andrew Anglin, the proprietor of the neo-Nazi website The Daily… Continue reading “Analysis Of Facebook Activity Reveals Who Attended Last Year’s “Unite The Right” Rally”
Academic scholarship on the Alt-Right is much smaller than journalistic prose. That said, the last several years have seen an upsurge in scholarly writing on this contemporary phenomenon. To date, academic press has published only two books on the Alt-Right. In 2017, Making Sense of the Alt-Right, examines the movement’s origins, ideology, goals and role… Continue reading “Revisiting Some Recent Literature on the Alt-Right”
So Two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism. – E. M. Forster Importance! What is it, sir after all? The respect of fools, the wonder of children, the envy of the rich, the contempt of the wise man. – Stendhal In a recent series of tweets and… Continue reading “Two Cheers for Democracy”
In my previous blog, I made three key points: 1) Islamists are neglected when we consider the contemporary radical right; 2) Islamists, like Christian fundamentalists, may qualify as right-wing extremists; and 3) By neglecting Islamists, we underestimate their serious influence (and lethality), while potentially overestimating the impact of radical right ideologues, movements, and political parties. How… Continue reading “When Interpreting Fascism and Islamism, How ‘Progressive’ are ‘Progressive’ Intellectuals?”
In Germany, campaign advertisements for Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a radical right populist party that, among other things, is opposed to migration, included an image of a pregnant women, whose face is not shown apart from her smile. It carried a slogan that translates as ‘New Germans? We’ll make our own.’ Other campaign posters feature… Continue reading “Gender, Identity, and the Radical Right”
“What’s your opinion on Völkisch settlers?” This question caused a heated debate in the esoteric neo-Nazi forum www.skadi.net in autumn 2016. Most of the international users on the site had probably heard of this peculiar current of the German radical right for the first time. They were attracted by pictures of traditional clothes, Germanic rituals… Continue reading “Practicing the Radical Right Exit: The Case of the Völkisch Settlers”
In the burgeoning literature on the populist right, smouldering resentment has so far not been sufficiently appreciated and expressed. The SVP (Swiss People’s Party) is Switzerland’s largest political party. This was not always the case. Until the 1990s, the SVP garnered around 10 percent of the popular vote. As the traditional representative of Switzerland’s farming… Continue reading “Everything That is Wrong is the Fault of ’68: Regaining Cultural Hegemony by Trashing the Left”