A neo-fascist third way: The discourse of ethno-differentialist revolutionary nationalism

Abstract

Some commentators have remarked upon the authoritarian, even fascist, antecedents of contemporary third way ideology in an attempt to critique the New Labour government. By focusing on a sub-type of the French and Belgian 'radical right' which proclaims itself the inheritor of revolutionary forms of fascism rooted in the works of activists like Valois, the German 'National Bolshevik' Ernst Niekisch, and the Strasser brothers, this article shows that the reality is more complex. After identifying elements common to ethno-differentialist revolutionary nationalist movements--which explicitly derive from a search for a 'third way' between capitalism and communism, West and East--a brief comparison with New Labour reveals that the two share only a 'family resemblance'. This leads to the conclusion that third way discourse is not a closed ideology, but the site of political contestation sparked by an organic crisis brought about by a number of social dislocations.