Lecture 8

                            Post-communist intolerance and radical right

                                          Main difference

n     The difference between the radical right and the moderate right is intolerance -- the radical
right refuses to allow different, alternative ideas the right to exist

n     Radical right asserts fundamental truths that are beyond challenge (hence allowing no room for
compromise) `a

n     Anti-intellectualism of organised intolerance (cf. violent destruction of the old world by
Italian fascism)

                                               Hatred

n    The politics of organised intolerance is about hating difference

n    Hatred of difference (either race, nation, religion, sexual orientation, ...)

n    Justifications are only added later, hatred is irrational (not rational)

                                             Definition

n     Radical right (RR) = ultraright = extreme right

n     Generally used for organised intolerance

n     Characteristics of right-wing extremism:

n     1) N with hostile attitude toward other states or peoples, 2) denial that all people have
equal rights, 3) rejection of parliamentary-pluralist system, 4) folk-ethnocentric ideology (Richard
Stöss)

                                               Scheme
                                  (according to Sabrina P. Ramet)

n    Organised intolerance

n    Radical right politics

n    Fascism

n    Nazism

n    Radical right politics is a particular form of organised intolerance; fascism is a subset of RR
politics; Nazism is a subset of fascism

                                        Analytical framework
                                  (according to Minkenberg, 2002)

n      The CEE radical right exists in the specific socio-historical context of a "multiple
modernisation process":

n      Transformation from authoritarian regime to liberal democracy

n      Transformation from state-socialist to capitalist market economy

n      Transformation from industrialism to postindustrialism

n      + often also simultaneous nation-building and state-building



                                         The CEE experience

n     Economic and political insecurity

n     Consolidation of the new regimes (uncompleted process of democratisation)

n     Specific opportunities for the radical right

n     However, the electoral success is limited, radical right movements have trouble transforming
into solid political parties

                         Emergence of radical right in CEE, Russia and CIS

n      Certain key variables promote radical right politics  (according to C. Williams):

n      Cultural factors (no sense of belonging, national identity crisis...)

n      Political changes

n      Economic transition (rising prices, growing unemployment, increase in poverty...)

n      Social tension (new cleavages emerge, ethnic cleavage being the most important)

n      Globalisation

                                           Radical right

n      Is post-1989 radical right in Central-Eastern Europe a return of the pre-democratic and
pre-communist past?

n      Is post-1989 radical right in Central-Eastern Europe an equivalent of today's Western
European radical right?

n      It is neither: the dominant forces of the radical right in transformation states are
ideologically (more extreme and openly antidemocratic) and structurally (less a party, more a social
movement) different from most western varieties

                                       Right-wing radicalism

n     A response to social change; radical effort to undo such change (cf. modernisation theories):

n     Instead of social differentiation back to nationally defined community,

n     Instead of individualisation back to traditional roles and status of the individual

n     Emphasis on social homogeneity

                                              Ideology

n     Right-wing radicalism is a political ideology based on the myth of a homogeneous nation
(romantic, populist ultranationalism that is against liberal and plural democracy)

n     Radicalising ethnic, religious, cultural, political criteria of who is `us' and who `them' --
who is excluded

n     Populist, anti-establishment political style

                                       Contemporary situation

n     Organised intolerance has several different forms:

n     Ultranationalist (M. Sladek's Republican Party)

n     Fascist (and crypto-fascist) (New Czech Unity Party, Total Neofaschos)

n     Clerical

n     Ultraconservative

n     Radical-populist

                                   Radical right potential in CEE

n     Mobilisation potential for radical right in CEE seems large but is in fact not very different
from western democracies

n     Radical right-wing mobilisation potential includes components of right-wing
self-identification, N, anti-system orientations, anti-Semitism, R, authoritarianism, religious
fundamentalism

                                Difference between CEE and the West

n    Anti-immigration feelings are low in CEE compared to the West (traditionally migration flows
from East to West!)

n    Widespread resentment toward the largest regional minority: the Roma

n    Declining trust in democracy and low levels of confidence in parliament, pol. parties

                                     Influence on the politics

n    Radical right-wing political parties exist in almost all of the transformation states

n    Their electoral success is very different

                                       Reading for next week

n    Read Michael Minkenberg "The radical right in postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe" pp.
344-362!