Inside The Radical Right

What explains the cross-national variation in the radical right's electoral success over the last several decades? Challenging existing structural and institutional accounts, this book analyzes the dynamics of party building and explores the attitudes, skills and experiences of radical right activists in eleven different countries. Based on extensive field research and an original data set of radical right candidates for office, David Art links the quality of radical right activists to broader patterns of success and failure. He demonstrates how a combination of historical legacies and incentive structures produced activists who helped party building in some cases and doomed it in others. In an age of rising electoral volatility and the fading of traditional political cleavages, Inside the Radical Right makes a strong case for the importance of party leaders and activists as masters of their own fate.

There has been a tendency amongst scholars to view Switzerland as a unique case, and comparative scholarship on the radical right has therefore shown little interest in the country. Yet, as the author convincingly argues, there is little justification for maintaining the notion of Swiss exceptionalism, and excluding the Swiss radical right from cross-national research. His book presents the first comprehensive study of the development of the radical right in Switzerland since the end of the Second World War and therefore fills a significant gap in our knowledge. It examines the role that parties and political entrepreneurs of the populist right, intellectuals and publications of the New Right, as well as propagandists and militant groups of the extreme right assume in Swiss politics and society. The author shows that post-war Switzerland has had an electorally and discursively important radical right since the 1960s that has exhibited continuity and persistence in its organizations and activities. Recently, this has resulted in the consolidation of a diverse Swiss radical right that is now established at various levels within the political and public arena.

What explains the cross-national variation in the radical right's electoral success over the last several decades? Challenging existing structural and institutional accounts, this book analyzes the dynamics of party building and explores the attitudes, skills, and experiences of radical right activists in eleven different countries. Based on extensive field research and an original data set of radical right candidates for office, David Art links the quality of radical right activists to broader patterns of success and failure. He demonstrates how a combination of historical legacies and incentive structures produced activists who helped party building in some cases, and doomed it in others. In an age of rising electoral volatility and the fading of traditional political cleavages, Inside the Radical Right makes a strong case for the importance of party leaders and activists as masters of their own fate.

Radical right-wing populist parties, such as Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom, Marine Le Pen’s National Front or Nigel Farage’s UKIP, are becoming increasingly influential in Western European democracies. Their electoral support is growing, their impact on policy-making is substantial, and in recent years several radical right-wing populist parties have assumed office or supported minority governments. Are these developments the cause and/or consequence of the mainstreaming of radical right-wing populist parties? Have radical right-wing populist parties expanded their issue profiles, moderated their policy positions, toned down their anti-establishment rhetoric and shed their extreme right reputations to attract more voters and/or become coalition partners? This timely book answers these questions on the basis of both comparative research and a wide range of case studies, covering Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Analysing the extent to which radical right-wing populist parties have become part of mainstream politics, as well as the factors and conditions which facilitate this trend, this book is essential reading for students and scholars working in European politics, in addition to anyone interested in party politics and current affairs more generally.

Shows that the acquisition of political power and demand for rights by ascendant minority groups in Eastern Europe has precipitated a backlash of radical right mobilization.

Studies the new West European parties of the radical populist right, arguing that, in distancing themselves from the reactionary politics of the traditional extremist right, these parties have become a significant challenge to the established structure and politics of West European democracy today.

This book, first published in 2005, explains why radical right parties have advanced in a diverse array of democracies.

July 4th, 1984: Committee of the States delegates from twelve states assembled at the California ranch of Colonel Gale to form a compact which called for the elimination of income taxes & the replacement of the Congress of the United States... October 23, 1986: Unknown to the Committee of the States, federal attorneys from six states had already met to form Operation Clean-Sweep. Colonel Gale & associates across the nation were subsequently swept up in a tide of arrests... The book, "COMMITTEE OF THE STATES" is an unparalleled investigative report of one of the most organized & complex movements America has ever known. A provocative oral history of revealing, & at times alarming, dialogue from a wide spectrum of activists who share an apocalyptic vision of a jihad, or holy war, which they believe is starting now. A biography of Colonel William Potter Gale, former staff officer to General Douglas MacArthur & reclusive "godfather of the far right," who formed a militia of his own & declared war against Z.O.G., the Zionist Occupied Government. Journey with reporter Cheri Seymour through the behind-the-scenes dynamics of the Identity Movement, a revolutionary culture that exists parallel to & within mainstream America.