Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

political extremism in europe

  • Parties, Elections, Voters
  • Published:
European Political Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. Obviously, we do not disregard the contributions made in other studies and we will draw from as many works as possible in our analysis of the state of the art of research on extremism in this review article.

  2. This view has a long history within the field; see, for example, Margaret Canovan's classic study on Populism (1981).

  3. The book by Nikolaus Werz (2003) includes also some interesting chapters on ‘populists overseas’, such as India (Rösel) and Latin America (Werz).

  4. Interestingly, the VB does feature quite prominently in PhD dissertations on the extreme right (e.g. Jungerstam-Mulders, 2003; Lubbers, 2001).

  5. For example, at the 2004 ECPR Joint Session in Uppsala (Sweden) there was a workshop on the effects of incumbency on the organisation of extreme right parties. In 2004 a conference was organized in Geneva (Switzerland) on the foreign policy of right-wing populist parties, and in 2005 the topic of a conference in Munich (Germany) was right-wing populist parties in power. The papers of the last two conferences will be published in edited volumes in the near future.

  6. The parties studied are the Austrian FPÖ, the Czech Sdružení pro republiku-Republikánská strana Československa (SPR-RSČ), the French FN, the Italian Alleanza Nazionale (AN), and the Slovak Slovenská Národná Strana(SNS).

  7. In the English language articles, the PDS is often portrayed as a regionalist Ossi-Partei with strong pro-Volk and anti-elite tendencies, but the term populism is rarely used (cf. McKay, 2004; Oswald, 2004).

  8. This is particularly the case with studies on the United States (see, e.g., Michael, 2004; Durham, 2000).

  9. This is even worsened by the broad interest in the topic, which has made it (too) easy to publish mediocre work in the field including material already published.

  10. The ECPR Standing Group on Extremism & Democracy, for example, counts over 600 members from more than fifty countries worldwide. While these also include scholars of terrorism and religious fundamentalism, the majority are students of political extremism in Europe. See: http://webhost.ua.ac.be/extremismanddemocracy/.

  11. A good example can be found in the article by Beichelt and Minkenberg (2002) and the various reactions and rejoinder in the issues 5, 7 and 8 of the German language journal Osteuropa.

References

  • Abedi, A. (2004) Anti-Political Establishment Parties. A Comparative Analysis, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amesberger, H. and Halbmayer, B. (eds.) (2002) Rechtsextreme Parteien – eine mögliche Heimat für Frauen, Opladen: Leske+Budrich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Backes, U. (2003) ‘Rechtsextremismus – Konzeptionen und Kontroversen’, in U. Backes (ed.) Rechtsextreme Ideologien in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Cologne: Böhlau, pp. 15–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Backes, U. (1990) ‘Nationalpopulismus und Rechtsextremismus im westlichem Deutschland. Kritische Betrachtungen zum neuerlichemn ‘Hoch’ in Politik und Literatur’, Neue Politische Literatur 35 (3): 443–471.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beichelt, T. and Minkenberg, M. (2002) ‘Rechtsradikalismus in Transformationsgesellschaften. Entstehungsbedingungen und Erklärungsmodell’, Osteuropa 52 (3): 247–262.

    Google Scholar 

  • Betz, H-G. (1994) Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe, Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Betz, H-G. (2004) La droite populiste en Europe. Extrême et démocrate?, Paris: CEVIPOF/Autrement.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaise, P. and Moreau, P. (eds.) (2004) Extrême droite et national-populisme en Europe de l’ouest, Brussels: CRISP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bozóki, A. and Ishiyama, J.T. (eds.) (2002) The Communist Successor Parties of Central and Eastern Europe, Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canovan, M. (1981) Populism, London: Junction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Capoccia, G. (2005) Defending Democracy: Reactions to Extremism in Interwar Europe, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casals Meseguer, X. (1998) La tentación neofascista en España, Barcelona: Plaza & Janés.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coffé, H. (2004) Groot in Vlaanderen, klein(er) in Wallonië. Een analyse van het electorale succes van de extreem-rechtse partijen, Ph.D. thesis, University of Free Brussels.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, P. (1999) The National Front in France: Ideology, Discourse and Power, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Decker, F. (2000) Parteien unter Druck. Der neue Rechtspopulismus in den westlichen Demokratien, Opladen: Leske+Budrich.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Decker, F. (2004) Der neue Rechtspopulismus, Opladen: Leske+Budrich.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Durham, M. (2000) The Christian Right, the Far Right and the Boundaries of American Conservatism, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eatwell, R. (1998) ‘The dynamics of right-wing electoral breakthrough’, Patterns of Prejudice 32 (3): 3–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eatwell, R. and Mudde, C. (eds.) (2004) Western Democracies and the New Extreme Right Challenge, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fieschi, C. (2004) Fascism, Populism and the French Fifth Republic, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibson, R. (2002) The Growth of Anti-Immigrant Parties in Western Europe, Lewiston: Edwin Mellen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Golder, M. (2003) ‘Explaining variation in the success of extreme right parties in Western Europe’, Comparative Political Studies 36 (4): 432–466.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grzymala-Busse, A. (2002) Redeeming the Communist Past: The Regeneration of Communist Parties in East Central Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hainsworth, P. (ed.) (2000) The Politics of the Extreme Right. From the Margins to the Mainstream, London: Pinter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartleb, F. (2004) Rechts- und Linkspopulismus. Eine Fallstudie anhand von Schill-Partei und PDS, Opladen: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinisch, R. (2003) ‘Success in opposition – Failure in government: explaining the performance of right-wing populist parties in public office’, West European Politics 26 (3): 91–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, D.R. (2000) Integral Europe. Fast-Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, K. (2000) European Communism since 1989: Towards a New European Left, Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ignazi, P. (2003) Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ignazi, P. (1994) L’estrema destra in Europa, Bologna: Il Mulino.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ignazi, P. (1992) ‘The silent counter-revolution. Hypotheses on the emergence of extreme right-wing parties in Europe’, European Journal of Political Research 22 (1–2): 3–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ionescu, G. and Gellner, E. (eds.) (1969) Populism. Its Meanings and National Characteristic, London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jungerstam-Mulders, S. (2003) Uneven Odds. The Electoral Success of the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, the Vlaams Blok, the Republikaner and the Centrumdemocraten under the Conditions Provided by the Political System in Austria, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitschelt, H. and McGann, A. (1995) The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klandermans, B. and Mayer, N. (eds.) (2005) Through the Magnifying Glass: The World of Extreme Right Activists, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lubbers, M. (2001) Exclusionistic Electorates. Extreme Right-Wing Voting in Western Europe, PhD dissertation, University of Nijmegen.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, L. and Mudde, C. (2005) ‘What's left of the radical left? The European radical left since 1989: decline and mutation’, Comparative European Politics 3 (1): 23–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mareš, M. (2003) Pravicovy extremismus a radikalismus v České republice, Brno: Barrister and Principal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, N. (2002) Ces Français qui votent Le Pen, Paris: Flammarion.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKay, J. (2004) ‘The PDS tests the West: the Party of Democratic Socialism's campaign to become a pan-German socialist party’, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 20 (2): 50–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mény, Y. and Surel, Y. (eds.) (2002) Democracies and the Populist Challenge, Basingstoke: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mény, Y. and Surel, Y. (2000) Par le people, pour le people, Paris: Fayard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merkl, P.H. and Weinberg, L. (eds.) (2003) Right-Wing Extremism in the Twenty-First Century, London: Frank Cass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michael, G. (2004) Confronting Right-Wing Extremism and Terrorism in the USA, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minkenberg, M. (1998) Die neue radikale Rechte im Vergleich: USA, Frankreich, Deutschland, Opladen: Westdeutscher.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Minkenberg, M. (2001) ‘The radical right in public office: agenda setting and policy effects’, West European Politics 24 (1): 1–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minkenberg, M. (2002) ‘The radical right in postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe: comparative observations and interpretations’, East European Politics and Societies 16 (2): 335–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minkenberg, M. (2003) ‘The West European radical right as a collective actor: modeling the impact of cultural and structural variables on party formation and movement mobilization’, Comparative European Politics 1 (2): 149–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mudde, C. (ed.) (2005) Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mudde, C. (2004) ‘The populist Zeitgeist’, Government & Opposition 39 (4): 541–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mudde, C. (1996) ‘The war of words: defining the extreme right party family’, West European Politics 19 (2): 225–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oswald, F. (2004) ‘Negotiating identities: the Party of Democratic Socialism between East German regionalism, German national identity and European integration’, Australian Journal of Politics and History 50 (1): 75–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pedahzur, A. (2002) The Israeli Response to Jewish Extremism and Violence. Defending Democracy, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Perrineau, P. (ed.) (2001) Les croisés de la société fremée. L’Europe des extrêmes droites, Paris: l’aube essai.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rapoport, D.C. and Weinberg, L. (eds.) (2001) The Democratic Experience and Political Violence, London: Frank Cass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rydgren, J. (2003) The Populist Challenge: Political Protest and Ethno-nationalist Mobilization in France, New York: Berghahn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rydgren, J. (2002) ‘Radical right populism in Sweden: still a failure, but for how long?’, Scandinavian Political Studies 25 (1): 27–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schain, M., Zolberg, A. and Hassay, P. (eds.) (2002) Shadows over Europe: The Development and Impact of the Extreme Right in Western Europe, New York: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stöss, R. (2000) Rechtsextremismus im vereinten Deutschland, 3rd ed, Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taggart, P. (2000) Populism, Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Brug, W. and Fennema, M. (2003) ‘Protest or mainstream. How the European anti-immigrant parties developed into two separate groups by 1999’, European Journal of Political Research 42 (1): 55–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werz, N. (ed.) (2003) Populismus. Populisten in Übersee und Europa, Opladen: Leske+Budrich.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, Antwerp, 2000, Belgium

    Sarah L De Lange & cas mudde

Authors
  1. Sarah L De Lange
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. cas mudde
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

De Lange, S., mudde, c. political extremism in europe. Eur Polit Sci 4, 476–488 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.eps.2210056

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.eps.2210056

Search

Navigation