Research Catalog

Title

The radical right in Western Europe : a comparative analysis / Herbert Kitschelt ; in collaboration with Anthony J. McGann.

Author

Kitschelt, Herbert.

Publication

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

McGann, Anthony J.

Description

xiii, 332 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

• The Rise of new political competitors on the radical right is a central feature of many contemporary European party systems. The first study of its kind based on a wide array of comparative survey data, The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis provides a unifying framework to explain why rightist parties are electorally powerful in some countries but not in others. The book argues that changes in social structure and the economy do not by themselves adequately explain the success of extremist parties. Instead we must look to the competitive struggles among parties, their internal organizational patterns, and their long-term ideological traditions to understand the principles governing their success.
• Radical right authoritarian parties tend to emerge when moderate parties converge toward the median voter. But the success of these parties depends on the strategy employed by the right-wing political actors. Herbert Kitschelt's in-depth analysis, based on the experiences of rightist parties in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Britain, reveals that the broadest appeal is enjoyed by parties that couple a fierce commitment to free markets with authoritarian, ethnocentric - or even racist-messages. The author also shows how a country's particular political constituency or its intellectual and organizational legacies may allow right-wing parties to diverge from these norms and still find electoral success. The book concludes by exploring the interaction between the development of the welfare state, cultural pluralization through immigrants, and the growth of the extreme right.

Subject

• Geschichte 1980-1994
• Socialist parties > Europe
• Right and left (Political science)
• Socialist parties > Europe, Western
• Europe > Politics and government
• Europe, Western > Politics and government

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-321) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. The Contemporary Radical Right: All Interpretative and Explanatory Framework -- 2. The Authoritarian Right against the Libertarian Left: Variations in West European Right-Wing Extremism -- 3. France: The National Front As Prototype of the New Radical Right -- 4. Scandinavia: A Milder Version of the New Radical Right -- 5. Blending New Right Appeals into a Broad Populist Antiestablishment Strategy: Austria and Italy -- 6. The Legacy of National Socialism in the New Radical Right: Germany -- 7. Racism, Right-Wing Populism, and the Failure of the Extreme Right in Britain -- 8. The New Radical Right, Cultural Pluralization, and the Welfare State -- 9. Conclusion -- Appendix: Wording of Questions in the World Values Survey.

ISBN

• 0472084410 (pbk)
• 0472106635 (hc : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^95041373^

OCLC

• 33162038
• SCSB-10165144

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library