Right-wing Extremism/Radicalism: Reconstructing the Concept

Carter

Abstract

This article reconstructs the concept of right-wing extremism/radicalism. Using Mudde’s influential 1995 study as a foundation, it first canvasses the recent academic literature to explore how the concept has been described and defined. It suggests that, despite the frequent warnings that we lack an unequivocal definition of this concept, there is actually a high degree of consensus amongst the definitions put forward by different scholars. However, it argues that the characteristics mentioned in some of the definitions have not been organized meaningfully. It, therefore, moves on to distinguish between the defining properties of right-wing extremism/radicalism and the accompanying ones, and in so doing it advances a minimal definition of the concept as an ideology that encompasses authoritarianism, anti-democracy and exclusionary and/or holistic nationalism.

Citation

Carter. (2018). Right-wing Extremism/Radicalism: Reconstructing the Concept. Journal of Political Ideologies, 23(2), 157-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2018.1451227

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 11, 2016
• Publication Date: Mar 26, 2018
• Journal: Journal of Political Ideologies
• Print ISSN: 1356-9317
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 157-182
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2018.1451227
• Keywords: extreme right, radical right, definition, authoritarianism, anti-democracy,nationalism
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13569317.2018.1451227