Right Wing Extremism

Fascism and Political Theory offers both students and researchers a thematic analysis of fascism, focusing on the structural and ideological links between fascism, capitalism and modernity. Intended as a critical discussion of the origins and development of fascist ideology, each chapter deals with a core substantive issue in political theory relevant to the study of fascism and totalitarianism, beginning with an assessment of the current state of debate.

The emphasis on formal ideology in contemporary Anglo-American historiography has increased our awareness of the complexity and eclectic nature of fascist ideologies which challenge liberalism and social democracy. Yet in too many recent works, a programmatic or essentialist reading of fascist ideology as a ‘secular religion’ is taken for granted, while researchers remain preoccupied with the search for an elusive ‘fascist minimum’.

In this book Woodley emphasizes that many outstanding questions remain, including the structural and ideological links between fascism and capitalism, the social construction of fascist nationalism, and the origins of fascist violence in European colonialism. This volume consolidates the reader’s theoretical understanding and provides the interdisciplinary skills necessary to understand the concrete social, economic and political conditions which generate and sustain fascism.

A timely critique of culturalist and revisionist approaches in fascism studies which provides a concise overview of theoretical debates between liberalism, Marxism and poststructuralism, this text will be of great interest to students of politics, modern history and sociology.

Following his third election victory in 2008, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the most controversial head of government in the EU. This is a cogent examination of the Berlusconi phenomenon, exploring the success and development of the new populist right-wing coalition in Italy since the collapse of the post-war party system in the early 1990s.

Carlo Ruzza and Stefano Fella provide a comprehensive discussion of the three main parties of the Italian right: Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, the xenophobic and regionalist populist Northern League and the post-fascist National Alliance. The book assesses the implications of this controversial right for the Italian democratic system and examines how the social and political peculiarities of Italy have allowed such political formations to emerge and enjoy repeated electoral success.

Framed in a comparative perspective, the authors:

• explore the nature of the Italian right in the context of right-wing parties and populist phenomena elsewhere in other advanced democracies, drawing comparisons and providing broader explanations.

• locate the parties of the Italian right within the existing theoretical conceptions of right-wing and populist parties, utilising a multi-method approach, including a content analysis of party programmes.

• highlight the importance of political and discursive opportunities in explaining the success of the Italian right, and the agency role of a political leadership that has skilfully shaped and communicated an ideological package to exploit these opportunities.

Providing an excellent insight into a key European nation, this work provides a thoughtful and stimulating contribution to the research on the Italian right, and its implications for democratic politics.

The British National Party (BNP) is the most successful far right party in British political history. Based on unprecedented access to the party and its members, this book examines the rise of the BNP and explains what drives some citizens to support far right politics. It is essential reading for all those with an interest in British politics, extremism, voting, race relations and community cohesion. The book helps us understand:

• how wider trends in society have created a favourable climate for the far right;
• how the far right has presented a ‘modernised’ ideology and image;
• how the movement is organized, and has evolved over time;
• who votes for the far right and why;
• why people join, become and remain actively involved in far right parties.

• A thorough introduction to post-Civil War Spain, from its development under Franco and subsequent transition to democracy up to the present day
• Tusell was a celebrated public figure and historian. During his lifetime he negotiated the return to Spain of Picasso’s Guernica, was elected UCD councillor for Madrid, and became a respected media commentator before his untimely death in 2005
• Includes a biography and political assessment of Francisco Franco
• Covers a number of pertinent topics, including fascism, isolationism, political opposition, economic development, decolonization, terrorism, foreign policy, and democracy
• Provides a context for understanding the continuing tensions between democracy and terrorism, including the effects of the 2004 Madrid Bombings

Bob Doyle was born in Dublin's inner city in 1916. After a poor childhood he joined the ranks of the unemployed in the 1930s. Inspired by the Spanish Civil War he entered that country in 1937 and joined the International Brigade to fight against Franco. Captured by the Fascists, he spent many months in a prison camp, until he was released to the French as a prisoner exchange. He did not forget Spain, returning to take part in the underground anti-Franco resistance. He was there with other veterans of the International Brigade to celebrate the return of democracy after Franco's death. Brigadista is a lively, sometimes humorous memoir. The book provides an incomparable insight into the life of one man and the age in which he lived.

Fascism in Europe, 1919-1945 surveys the phenomenon which is still the object of interest and debate over fifty years after its defeat in the Second World War. It introduces the recent scholarship and continuing debates on the nature of fascism as well as the often contentious contributions by foreign historians and political scientists.

From the pre-First World War intellectual origins of Fascism to its demise in 1945, this book examines:

* the two 'waves' of fascism - in the immediate post-war period and in the late 1920s and early 1930s
* whether the European crisis created by the Treaty of Versailles allowed fascism to take root
* why fascism came to power in Italy and Germany, but not anywhere else in Europe
* fascism's own claim to be an international and internationalist movement
* the idea of 'totalitarianism' as the most useful and appropriate way of analyzing the fascist regimes.

This book investigates how fascism – as an ideology and political praxis – reconfigured the ideological, political, and moral landscape of interwar Europe, generating an atmosphere of extreme ‘license’ that facilitated the leap into eliminationist violence. It demonstrates how fascist ideology linked the prospect of violent ‘cleansing’ to utopias of national/racial regeneration, thus encouraging and legitimizing targeted hatred against particular ‘others’. It also shows how the diffusion and internationalization of fascism in the 1930s produced a sense of a revolutionary new beginning and created a transnational fascist ‘new order’ in which Nazi Germany came to occupy a potent position of authority. The book analyzes how the eliminationist initiative and precedent of Nazi Germany became a second ‘license’ that empowered fascist regimes across Europe to embark on their own eliminationist projects with diminished accountability. Finally, it examines how this ‘license’ – enhanced by the actions of fascists and the collapse of order caused by World War Two – released individuals and communities from the burden of legal and moral accountability, turning them into accomplishes in the most wide, brutal, and devastating genocidal campaign that the continent had ever experienced.