Interview #46 — How to understand the emergence of far right parties

October 26, 2020October 22, 2020Leave a comment

In this interview with Steven Van Hauwaert we discuss the reasons behind the success of the far right and its links to the dynamic processes that characterize social movements. Thinking outside the box, or beyond the classic demand and supply approach, is essential to understand the success and failure of far right parties: in particular, expanding political opportunities, mobilizing structures, and master frames —if analyzed together and combined with favorable socio-economic conditions— can offer a much more complete explanation for the emergence of far right parties.

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Interview #22: Populism in Western Europe ain’t no domino effect

October 24, 2017December 15, 20171 Comment

In this long and insightful interview Léonie de Jonge explains why populism is so successful and widespread in certain countries or regions while it is stigmatized or unsuccessful in others; the (few) similarities and (many) differences between the radical right-wing populist parties in Europe; details about cases such as France, Germany, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, or Portugal; last but not least she warns against the dangers of #schmopulism.

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Interview #4 – Aurelien Mondon on French Populism: between resistance and revolutions

September 17, 2015September 17, 2015Leave a comment

Aurelien Mondon’s primary research currently focuses on neo-racism, Islamophobia and right-wing populism, and their impact on liberal democracies. More detail can be found here and here. He is Lecturer in French and comparative politics working on racism, populism, the far right and the crisis of democracy at the University of Bath. I asked him some general questions about populism, democracy, resistance and revolutions.

Let’s start by placing populism in its historical context. Is it still possible to claim that populism means ‘giving power to the people’, or nowadays even those who vote for populist parties know that they are actually delegating their power to (more or less) charismatic leaders and parties?

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