In the last month, European countries witnessed a series of events that reinforce the surge of radical and extreme right movements, such as the rise of Vox as the third political force in Spain, the independence march of nationalism in Poland, or recent Italian polls predicting that radical right parties might reach 51.5% in the… Continue reading “The Role of Sovereignism for European Radical/Extreme Right Parties”
Much has been written about the development of the personalities and other psychological characteristics of Alt-Right/far-right leaders such as Donald Trump (e.g. authors in Cruz and Buser, 2017; Waring & Paxton, 2019) and of violent far-right extremists – such as Anders Breivik, Thomas Mair, and Darren Osborne (e.g. Jackson (2019), Melle (2013), Turner-Graham (2019a), and… Continue reading “Jekyll-and-Hyde: What Creates a Far-Right Supporter? Part 1.”
It is more than 8 years since the massacre at Utøya and this year many local authorities ‘forgot’ to mark the 8th anniversary of the Utøya and Olso terror attacks, maybe because they were busy with the local elections. In the meantime, survivors continued to receive death threats and the political assault has still not… Continue reading “Frp in Norway – the end of the party?”
Matteo Salvini’s League party takes advantage of the frustration felt by Italians living in poverty to fuel xenophobia and hatred toward immigrants. Since Matteo Salvini took over the leadership of the Northern League party (rebranded as the League before last year’s elections) in late 2013, the focus of his harsh political campaigns shifted from southern… Continue reading “Italian Populists Use Social Welfare to Ignite a “War Between the Poor””
Much has been written about Steve Bannon’s influence on the worldview and policies of Donald Trump. Much less about the man who David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times, a few years ago characterized as “the most influential public intellectual in America today”. The reference is to Pat Buchanan, the perennial thorn in the… Continue reading “Icons of Radical Right-Wing Populism: Pat Buchanan, the Political Horse Whisperer”
The Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has recently announced his resignation after 14 months of the so-called Government of change. This political crisis offers us the opportunity to turn our attention towards the parties forming ‘the first populist government of Western Europe’ – the Five Star Movement (5SM) and the (Northern) League (NL) – and,… Continue reading “Populism in Power: The Italian Case”
Ideological Diversity Contemporary Far Right parties in Europe are often grouped into two distinct ideological wings. It is first important to differentiate between populist radical right parties (PRR) and extreme right-wing parties (ERW). Drawing on key scholars such as Cas Mudde, there are three key features that characterize PRR parties. PRR parties have a nativist, authoritarian… Continue reading “The Far-Right Party Family in the 21st Century: A Guide”
The political momentum and social appeal of the current populist backlash illustrates the persistence of dark collective layers that the postwar transition was meant to have banished. In academia, we seem to have a fondness for the trope of the “wave” and “wave theory.” Samuel Huntington gave us the waves of democratization — a process of… Continue reading “Is the World Undergoing a Deep Populist Transition?”
The current wave of populism calls to mind the mood of the early 20th century when liberal values in England saw a “strange death.” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent designation of liberal values as “obsolete” may sound familiar. This is not the first time the death of liberalism has been announced. As George Dangerfield’s classic… Continue reading “The Death of Liberalism Has Been Proclaimed Before”
What this tells people is that you’re either with us or against us. And if you’re against us then you’re fair game. The last few weeks has seen an explosion in the use of the word “fascism”; both online and offline. This has been all the more poignant this week as the Allied forces commemorate… Continue reading “Don’t throw the word ‘fascism’ around with abandon”