Political Parties: Extreme Right

Abstract

This article describes how ‘extreme right’ became part of the vocabulary of political science. It discusses the introduction of the cognate term ‘radical right.’ It offers its own comprehensive definition of extreme-right parties intended to cover a range of examples in different locations since the early nineteenth century. It discusses whether some parties labeled by many authors as ‘extreme right’ or ‘radical right’ ought rather or also to have ‘populist’ as a component of their labeling. It periodizes twentieth and twenty-first century extreme-right parties and discusses theorizing and research on the extreme right. It focuses first on debates about German Nazism, discussing contemporary and more recent theories about it. Various theories about postwar extreme-right parties are then described. Findings about the social base of extreme-right parties are summarized. Alternative forms of extreme-right movement are described. The tendency of extreme-right parties to splinter is discussed. Finally, some possible trajectories about the future of extreme-right parties are introduced.