Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe

by Ignazi, Piero

• ISBN13: 9780198293255
• ISBN10: 0198293259
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-07-24
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book has three aims. Firstly, it explores the extreme right in order to assess its ideological meaning and its political expression. Beginning with a discussion of the meaning and usefulness of the Left-Right distinction, it deals with the varying significance of the term 'right' anddiscusses the appropriateness of the competing terms: 'radical', 'new', 'populist', and 'extreme right'. The book argues that the traditional neo-fascist party has been supplanted by a new type of extreme right party, unrelated to fascist ideology, but nevertheless opposed to the fundamental valuesof the democratic political system. The book's second aim is to carry out an in-depth analysis of the post-war evolution of the extreme right of each country in Western Europe. The analysis highlights their lineage from pre-war fascist regimes or movements, their different partisan expressions inthe post-war period, their ideological profile, their party's relationship with other actors in the party system, the socio-demographic and attitudinal profile of their voter-base, and finally the conditions which have favoured or inhibited their development. Finally, the book discusses in detailmore recent trends within the West European extreme right and outlines a conceptual framework for explaining the success or failure of each political party. The volume, extensively revised, expanded, and updated from its original widely acclaimed Italian edition, will be essential reading for all those working on parties and movements in Western Europe.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	viii
Introduction	1	(3)
1 Meanings and Varieties of the Right	4	(16)
2 From Ideologies to Parties	20	(15)
3 Italy: The Faded Beacon and the Populist Surge	35	(27)
4 Germany: The Spectre That Never Materialized	62	(21)
5 France: Prototype of the New Extreme Right	83	(24)
6 Austria: Away from Liberalism	107	(17)
7 Belgium: Right Extremism and Ethnic Nationalism	124	(16)
8 Scandinavia: The Progress Parties Between Protest and Extremism	140	(22)
9 The Netherlands: A Fleeting Extreme Right	162	(11)
10 Great Britain: A Case of Failure	173	(14)
11 The Mediterranean Countries: Too Late for Nostalgia, Too Early for Post-material Protest	187	(10)
12 Extreme Right Parties: The By-product of a 'Silent Counter-revolution'?	197	(22)
Epilogue	219	(5)
References	224	(27)
Index	251