The movement to change India’s national symbolism under the BJP deliberately targets the principal ideas underpinning the vision of India as a secular state. On October 16, 2018, Swami Adityanand, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and well known Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Hindu-right hardliner, announced a change of name of one of north India’s… Continue reading “What Is Behind India’s Politics of Renaming?”
Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin’s new book, National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy styles itself as a ‘primer’ on what the authors label ‘national populism’. It is already causing a great deal of controversy and stimulating debate. Is the term ‘national populism’, which has not been widely used in academia to date, problematic? Is… Continue reading “Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin, National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy (London: Pelican, 2018) £9.99”
Eighty years after the Kindertransport, politicization of the supposed threats to western ways of life represented by refugees have become commonplace. Eighty years ago, German Jewish parents sent their children to the UK on a scheme known as the Kindertransport. Some 10,000 children arrived in the framework of a programme of which the UK is… Continue reading “The Kindertransport was controversial too – it teaches us that hostility can be overcome”
‘The sleep of reason produces monsters’ -Goya “Alternative facts”—conspiracy theory, disinformation, pseudo-science, and convenient lies—are the warp and weft of extremist beliefs. The radical right’s parallel reality is woven from many dark and fanciful threads, from The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion to the demonization of George Soros, from scientific racism to “human… Continue reading “Occult Economy and the Far Right Grift”
Winston Peters’ New Zealand First has been a textbook case of how to combine populist rhetoric and nativist discourse in the service of political mobilization. Some 20 years ago, I coedited a book on The New Politics of the Right. The focus of the volume was on the adoption of populism by the radical right,… Continue reading “Winston Peters: From Populist Maverick to Elder Statesman”
The Britons are probably the most significant British racists you’ve never heard of. Through their publishing efforts, The Britons kept an English translation of infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion in print from their founding in 1919 to their final demise in 1975. Usually appearing as mere background characters in general texts on British… Continue reading “Book Review – Nick Toczek, Haters, Baiters and Would-Be Dictators: Anti-Semitism and the UK Far Right, Oxon: Routledge, 2016.”
In an article for the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR) in May 2018, I argued that Poland has become a crucible for the radical right, encouraged and supported by its ruling party – the nationalist, social-conservative and Eurosceptic – Law and Justice (PiS). Since PiS came to power in 2015, the Polish… Continue reading “The Polish Radical Right in Britain: Recent Developments”
Content Warning: The following blog contains depictions of violence within the eyewitness account which some readers may find distressing. Reader discretion is advised. In the second of a two-part series, Senior Fellow, Chris Webb, covers one of the most courageous events of the Second World War, where Jewish prisoners, against all the odds, rose… Continue reading “The Sobibor Death Camp Revolt – October 14, 1943 – Part 2”
Had the referendum passed, this would have made Romania the 15th European country to include a ban on same-sex marriage in its constitution — eighth in the EU. It is easy to dismiss homophobia as a product of the alt-right, and to imagine that only extremists fear and hurt those who don’t conform to a… Continue reading “Romania Puts Homophobia on the Ballot”
Abstract This research note provides a case study illustrating cross-national trends reported in recent research on the radical right. Using party manifesto data, we examine Denmark from 1973-2011 and find that the radical right has moved toward economic leftism and social conservatism, creating a cleavage within the party family over time. Furthermore, nationalist claims increasingly distinguish the Danish… Continue reading “From radical right to neo-nationalist: Danish party politics, 1973-2011 (Sarah Valdez & Maureen A. Eger )”