Strategies for Combating Right-Wing Extremism in Europe

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• Publisher: Bertelsmann Stiftung
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9783867930161
• eBook ISBN: 9783867932608
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Right-wing extremism is a phenomenon that can be found throughout Europe. All democratic societies are threatened by racist, anti-pluralistic and authoritarian ideas. Even though the so called "radical right" differs in character and ideology in the various European countries it strives to restrict civic and human rights as well as to change the constitutional structures that are based on the principles of democracy and liberty. Individual European countries deal with this challenge differently. The various policy approaches found in these countries are a good source for developing improved practices for fighting rightwing extremism in Germany and worldwide. With this publication the Bertelsmann Stiftung presents an overview of the radical right in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. It also includes the most successful strategies against right-wing extremism found in these countries. The main focus of this publication is the actions pursued by the governments, political parties and actors of the civil society. Judicial provisions are highlighted as well as the implementation of laws, special action programs, the effectiveness of prosecution of right-wing crimes, cooperation of parties, institutional responsibilities, cooperation of authorities with NGOs and civil commitment against right-wing extremism.

The Authors

Prof. Dr. József Bayer is the director of the Institute for Political Sciences at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and professor of political science and philosophy at the King Sigismund University College in Budapest. He has studied philosophy and cultural studies at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest and at the University of Debrecen. His major research interests are globalization and political transformations, political ideas and ideologies, and international relations theory.

Prof. Dr. Jean-Yves Camus is an associate researcher at the Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques (IRIS) and a professor at the Institut Universitaire d’Études Juives (IUEJ) in Paris. He has a degree in public administration from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and graduated with a degree in history from the Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). He is a specialist on extremist movements in politics, ethnic conflicts in Europe, racism and anti-Semitism. Among his publications is Front National. Eine Gefahr für die französische Demokratie? (Bonn, 1998).

Dr. Christopher T. Husbands is a reader in sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Chicago, where he specialized in political sociology. His doctoral dissertation was on the political movement of George C. Wallace in the United States between 1964 and 1968. He has subsequently published on the extreme right in most countries of Western Europe, particularly Belgium, the former German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Dr. Orkan Kösemen is a project manager at the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Germany. He holds a doctorate in social sciences (political science), which he obtained at the Humboldt University Berlin, where he was also a lecturer on domestic German politics. His areas of research include European Union enlargement, institutional change, the politics of Central-Eastern Europe, the European radical right, integration policies and immigrant associations.

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Dr. Heléne Lööw is an associate professor in the Department of History at Uppsala University in Sweden. She holds a doctorate in history, and her main fields of research are National Socialism, right-wing extremism, white-power movements, hate crimes and state responses.

Susi Meret, M. A., is a historian and doctoral student at the Institute of History and International Social Studies at the University of Aalborg, Denmark, as well as a member of the Academy of Migration Studies in Denmark (AMID). Her main research fields include the comparative study of radical right-wing ideologies, electorates in Denmark and Europe, majority attitudes toward ethnic minorities and migration policies in a European comparative perspective.

Prof. Dr. Michael Minkenberg holds the current Max Weber Chair for German and European Studies at New York University. He received his M. A. in American Government from Georgetown University and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Heidelberg. He has taught comparative politics at the universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg, at Cornell University and, most recently, at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). His research interests include the radical right in liberal democracies; immigration, nationalism and the politics of citizenship. Among his book publications are; Die neue radikale Rechte im Vergleich. USA, Frankreich, Deutschland (1998) and Radikale Rechte und Fremdenfeindlichkeit in Deutschland und Polen (2006, edited with D. Sucker and A. Wenninger).

Prof. Dr. Anton Pelinka has been a professor of nationalism studies and political science at the Central European University in Budapest since 2006. From 1975 to 2006, he was professor of political science at the University of Innsbruck. He obtained his doctorate in law at the University of Vienna and his postdoctoral lecture qualification in political science at the University of Salzburg. His main research interests (and publications) are: comparative politics (e.g., Democracy Indian Style: Subhas Chandra Bose and the Creation of India’s Political Culture, 2003); democratic theory (e. g., Politics of the Lesser Evil: Leadership, Democracy, and Jaruzelski’s Poland, 1999); and Austrian politics (e.g., Austria: Out of the Shadow of the Past, 1998; The Haider Phenomenon in Austria; co-edited with Ruth Wodak, 2002).

Britta Schellenberg, M. A., works as research analyst at the Center for Applied Policy Research (CAP) at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She has studied philosophy and Jewish history in Heidelberg, London and Berlin. Her main fields of research and responsibility are: right-wing radicalism and strategies against it; xenophobia; anti-Semitism; migration; and education policies. She also trains journalists on right-wing extremism. Among her publications is: Zum Umgang mit Rechtsextremismus in den Medien. Analyse und Empfehlungen. In Die Welt zu Gast bei wem? Rechtsextremismus, Fremdenfeindlichkeit und Migration in Sachsen, Deutschland und Europa, edited by Lothar Stock, Carina Tausch und Rainer Vor. Münster: Lit Verlag 2 2008. 173-186.

Dr. Damir Skenderovic is a lecturer in contemporary history at the University of Fribourg and co-director of the Swiss National Science Foundation’s (SNSF) research project “Language and Identity Politics.” He has studied history, social anthropology and communication sciences, and he has been a visiting scholar at the Center for European Studies at New York University. Among his recent books are Mit dem Fremden politisieren: Rechtspopulismus und Migrationspolitik in der Schweiz seit den 1960er Jahren (Zurich, 2008; with Gianni D’Amato); 1968-Revolution und Gegenrevolution: Neue Linke und Neue Rechte in Frankreich, der BRD und der Schweiz (Basel, 2008; co-edited with Christina Späti); and The Radical Right in Switzerland: Continuity and Change, 1945-2000 (Oxford and New York, in print, 2009).

Vera Sperisen, M.A., studied history, sociology and anthropology at the University of Bern, Switzerland. She is currently a research assistant at the University of Applied Sciences in Aarau, Switzerland. Her main research area...

Table of contents

• Titel
• Impressum
• Vorwort
• Einleitung
• The Radical Right in Europe: Challenges for Comparative Research
• Country Report Austria
• Country Report Belgium
• Country Report Denmark
• Country Report France
• Country Report Germany
• Country Report Great Britain
• Country Report Hungary
• Country Report Italy
• Country Report The Netherlands
• Country Report Sweden
• Country Report Switzerland
• Dispersion and Differentiation: The Structures and Trends of the Radical Right ...
• Strategies against the Radical Right in Europe
• Appendix: Abbreviations/Translations - Actors of the Radical Right in Europe
• The Authors