Part 1 of this blog summarised current psychological theories relevant to understanding far-right personalities and behaviour. The following sections summarise the data on three non-violent far-right supporters, and analyse to what extent these theories are born out[1]. Case 1: Male aged 76, UKIP and Britain First Supporter The author has known this individual (Subject 1)… Continue reading “Jekyll-and-Hyde: What Creates a Far-Right Supporter? Part 2.”
Authoritarianism, a characteristic of the far-right, has developed anew in the 21st century and has presented itself in multiple guises and in multiple loci to an extent that poses an increased threat and risk to democratic societies. For good or ill, I choose to label this phenomenon as the Alternative Right (Alt-Right), although recognizing that… Continue reading “The New Authoritarianism and the Glorification of Amoral Calculation”
Civilisations tend to exist either in a state of war or peace. Clausewitz reminds us that war is none other than “the continuation of politics by other means”. However, war does not stay the same; it changes, evolves, and grows depending on the context and time period it’s situated in. One person to examine the… Continue reading “War against the core values: Rise of the radical right in a context of hybrid war”
A key under-studied area for analysis is how contemporary extreme right movements can also be seen as totalitarian. Indeed, it is not difficult to find examples of such. According to an old joke, while in a liberal democracy everything that is not forbidden is allowed, in a totalitarian system everything that has not been banned… Continue reading “Totalitarianism in the twentieth century and beyond”
Authoritarianism helped Putin keep Russia from the collapse. Questions remain whether he can unify his disparate nation. In July 2019, mass demonstrations of citizens for fair elections were held in Moscow. According to various estimates, from 15 to 50 thousand people attended a rally on August 10 at A. Sakharov Square in the Russian Capital.… Continue reading “Why Russia Wants To Be An Empire Again”
Orban’s critics say that since coming to power in 2010, he has tightened control over key institutions in Hungary [File: Julien Warnard/Reuters] In the same week that Russia’s Vladimir Putin declared Western Liberalism was “obsolete”, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has consolidated his control over the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The end of a drawn-out struggle for… Continue reading “The Death of Liberalism, Academic Freedom, and Authoritarian Politics”
In his latest book, David Neiwert, journalist and leading expert on the radical right, details how the rise of the far right lead to the election of Trump. Since the unprecedented presidential election of Donald Trump in 2016, there has been a flurry of publications attempting to explain the “alt-right”, the “fringe”, and to make… Continue reading “The Radical Right Built Trump, And He Returned The Favor”
In my last CARR blog, I highlighted the rise of the radical right in various parts of the world. In this blog, I tackle key definitions in the literature, including what we mean by the radical right, populism, nativism, and illiberalism respectively. I also offer some interpretations of these terms and underscore some of the… Continue reading ““The Global Rise of Nativism and Illiberalism: A Conversation on the Contemporary Political Pathology.” Part 2 – Defining and Interpreting the New Radical Right”
The far right has often been described as a concept that is hard to define. Although there is still controversy around its three basic components, i.e. the intension (number of defining attributes), the extension (number of empirical phenomena), and the term (the label) that best characterizes it, we should not neglect the fact that much… Continue reading “Concept structures and the far right”
On November 27 2018, a panel discussion was organized at the Centre for Humanistic Inquiry (CHI), Amherst College, USA with the participation of Maria Alexandrovna Sidorkina, Chip Berlet, Tamir Bar-On and Dwaipayan Sen. After a few words of welcome by CHI director Martha Umphrey, organizer and discussant Andreas Önnerfors, Associate Professor in Intellectual History at… Continue reading “Conference Report – The Global Rise of Nativism and Illiberalism – A Conversation on the Contemporary Political Pathology”