The contemporary political landscape is characterized by extreme polarization, and that’s not only in Britain or the US. The outcome of the election in the United Kingdom is just one more piece of evidence of a pernicious trend that has increasingly infested liberal democracies — extreme polarization. While it will take some time to get… Continue reading “The Extremes Win Today’s Elections”
What makes former East Germany a fertile ground for the rise of the far right? In September, citizens of the former East German states of Brandenburg and Saxony headed to the polls to elect their new legislatures. The results were, on the one hand, a breath of fresh air for traditional parties, in particular the Social Democrats… Continue reading “Germany’s East-West Divide Fuels the Far Right”
Last Sunday’s elections saw far-right party Vox doubling its seats to become the third largest political force in the Spanish parliament, in line with other European far-right parties. Catalonia, immigration and Franco are some of the reasons why. Spain seems to be experiencing a déjà vu, as socialist party PSOE has won the elections but… Continue reading “The end of Spanish exceptionalism”
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”
Populist radical right parties and their leaders openly despise expertise: they often parade their ignorance and inexperience by developing, in electoral terms, propaganda depicting them shoulder-to-shoulder with ordinary citizens (“the People”) – as distant as possible from accultured, intellectual cosmopolitan elites. Mainstream political parties have, especially in recent years, often championed recourse to unelected experts… Continue reading “Expertise in politics: boon or bane?”
Unlike radical right-wing populism in Western Europe, Australia’s “Hansonism” is largely a one-woman show, almost completely dependent on Pauline Hanson’s personality and appeal. She has been called a “mischievous troublemaker, an “embarrassment” to the country, and just a plain racist. The referent of these diatribes is neither France’s Marine Le Pen nor Rocío Monasterio, the… Continue reading “Australia’s Own Brand of Radical Populism”
The 2019 European Parliament Elections provided an important case where the far-right Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) performed electorally well. However, we argue that there is a core tension within the AfD’s party strategy. This tension lies at the regional level, with a clear split ideologically within the party between Western and Eastern Germany. We… Continue reading “East v. West? The Internal Battle within the Far Right in Germany”
From the Inaugural CARR Conference For three days, the Richmond University in London was not only the site of insightful and thought-provoking presentations during the inaugural CARR conference, but also an opportunity to engage in some of the most relevant debates in the field. Its pervasiveness, reinforced in the recent European Parliament elections, allows the… Continue reading “Is the radical right really anti-climate? Some evidence from Hungary”