Learning Outcomes
- By the end of this term, you should have a clear understanding of what populist radical right parties are, and why support for them has grown over the last three decades.
- You should also know how the rise of the radical right has played out in various European countries.
Syllabus
Moodle
For more information and for PDFs of the readings, go to this course’s Moodle (enrolled students only)
Outline
| Date | Topic | Readings |
|---|---|---|
| 18.04.2024 | Introduction & central concepts | Mudde (2007) |
| 25.04.2024 | The Extreme Right before 1980 | Prowe (1994); background: Blinkhorn (2000, 8–88) |
| 02.05.2024 | The New Right | Rydgren (2005); background: Lange (2007; Vasilopoulou 2011) |
| 16.05.2024 | Why do people vote for them? | Arzheimer (2018) |
| 23.05.2024 | France & Belgium | Mayer (2018); Holsteyn (2018) |
| 06.06.2024 | Italy/Austria | Ruzza (2018) Backes (2018) |
| 13.06.2024 | Scandinavia/Germany | Widfeldt (2018); Backes (2018) |
| 20.06.2024 | Netherlands/Great Britain | Holsteyn (2018); Goodwin and Dennison (2018) |
| 27.06.2024 | Greece/Switzerland | Ruzza (2018); Backes (2018) |
| 04.07.2024 | Eastern Europe/Iberia | Bustikova (2018); Ruzza (2018) |
| 11.07.2024 | The populist radical right in government | background: Bichay (2022, 2023) |
| 18.07.2024 | Summary and reflection |
Readings
Introductory texts
The introductory chapter of Mudde’s 2007 book book is a required reading, but I would like to urge you to go back to it over the course of this term at least a couple of times. It will help you to gain a better understanding. (Mudde 2019) is an excellent introduction aimed at a general audience that covers many current developments.
The introduction to the Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right (Rydgren 2018) is a great starting point for getting a high-level overview of the field. Other chapters in the Handbook provide introductions and literature reviews for issues that we cannot address in detail in this course. On campus or using the JGU VPN, you can access the full Handbook online.
Assigned texts and background
For the first three weeks, there are assigned texts that you need to read — otherwise you will not be able to follow the lectures. You should also aim to read as much of the background literature as you can.
For the six weeks in which we study country examples, I have assigned the relevant case studies (country chapters) from the Handbook, as they provide relevant information for the respective lectures and are often excellent starting points for your essays. Bonus: some of them cover several countries, so you need to read them only once.
Finally the two articles by (Bichay 2022, 2023) use demanding statistical methods with which you may be unfamiliar, so I have put them into the “background” category. However, they are otherwise quite accessible, and you should try to get as much as possible out of them.
Arzheimer, Kai. 2018. “Explaining Electoral Support for the Radical Right.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right, edited by Jens Rydgren, 143–65. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190274559.013.8.
Backes, Uwe. 2018. “The Radical Right in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right, edited by Jens Rydgren, 452–77. Oxford University Press.
Bichay, Nicolas. 2022. “Populist Radical-Right Junior Coalition Partners and Liberal Democracy in Europe.” Party Politics, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/13540688221144698.
———. 2023. “Come Together: Far-Right Parties and Mainstream Coalitions.” Government and Opposition, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2023.5.
Blinkhorn, Martin. 2000. Fascism and the Right in Europe, 1919-1945. Harlow: Pearson.
Bustikova, Lenka. 2018. “The Radical Right in Eastern Europe.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right, edited by Jens Rydgren, 565–81. Oxford University Press.
Goodwin, Matthew J., and James Dennison. 2018. “The Radical Right in the United Kingdom.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right, edited by Jens Rydgren, 521–44. Oxford University Press.
Holsteyn, Joop J. M. van. 2018. “The Radical Right in Belgium and the Netherlands.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right, edited by Jens Rydgren, 478–504. Oxford University Press.
Lange, Sarah L. de. 2007. “A New Winning Formula?: The Programmatic Appeal of the Radical Right.” Party Politics 13 (4): 411–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068807075943.
Mayer, Nonna. 2018. “The Radical Right in France.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right, edited by Jens Rydgren, 433–51. Oxford University Press.
Mudde, Cas. 2007. Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2019. The Far Right Today. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Prowe, Diethelm. 1994. “‘Classic’ Fascism and the New Radical Right in Western Europe: Comparisons and Contrasts.” Contemporary European History 3 (3): 289–313.
Ruzza, Carlo. 2018. “The Radical Right in Southern Europe.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right, edited by Jens Rydgren, 505–20. Oxford University Press.
Rydgren, Jens. 2005. “Is Extreme Right-Wing Populism Contagious? Explaining the Emergence of a New Party Family.” European Journal of Political Research 44: 413–37.
———. 2018. “The Radical Right: An Introduction.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right, edited by Jens Rydgren, 1–13. Oxford University Press.
Vasilopoulou, Sofia. 2011. “European Ingegration and the Radical Right. Three Patterns of Opposition.” Government and Opposition 46 (2): 223–44.
Widfeldt, Anders. 2018. “The Radical Right in the Nordic Countries.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right, edited by Jens Rydgren, 545–64. Oxford University Press.