The Growth Of Right Wing Extremism: Explaining Recent Right Wing Shifts Across The World

1. The Literature Review is on: The Growth of Right Wing Extremism (Explaining recent right wing shifts across the world)

a. the introductory paragraph explaining the research topic/question and its importance.
b. a explanation of the main arguments and evidence from your five articles. Organize the paper by concepts and findings - not by article. Try to understand the specific research questions in each article in order to summarize the central ones correctly. 
c. Remember - you are not making an argument. A literature review simply objectively explains the research and findings of others that has already been done on a topic.

Radicalisation of Right Wing extremism across Europe

Right-wing politics holds the opinion that social order along with hierarchies is natural on the basis of natural law. Extremism means the quality of being extreme that is outside of the mainstream attitude of the society. Right wing extremism believes in the fact that hierarchy along with inequality are the natural result of that of traditional social differences. The term called “right-wing” is indicative of conservative section of political system. The trust of the citizens on the institutions have become low has paved the way for that of disruptive political forces that has ‘radical’ perspectives (Scrivens & Perry, 2017).  

The importance of the topic lies in the fact that it talks about the emergence of right-wing extremism that has taken place owing to migration. The research questions of the five articles has been addressed in the assignment by explaining the concept of structural context, xenophobia, digital communication, populism and radicalisation. This literature review states that radicalisation, digital communication, populism, xenophobia and the structural context has helped in the growth of right wing extremism.

Right wing extremism has spread across the Europe which can be evident from the Parliament of Eastern along with Western Europe. The radicalisation of far-right has taken place because of biographical factors like proneness to the violence. According to Scrivens and Perry (2017), violent socialisation by making use of internet have path the way for the growth of Right-Wing politics in Europe. It has been stated by Rose (2018) that radicalisation can be stated to be a dynamic process which is situated at critical junctures in relation to biographical, ideological and the structural. There occurs the category of “hate crime” in trajectory pertaining to violent radicalisation that helps in charting the pathway from non-violent to that of the violent behaviour.

Transformation taking place in environmental context can affect dynamics pertaining to violent radicalisation in far-right in future. According to Van Assche et al. (2017),  new technologies in relation to communication will bring about the socialization of the radical networks in Europe. The instability taking place in the realm of mainstream politics have facilitated radicalisation that have fostered new context for that of far-right radicalisation within Europe.

According to Mudde (2013) the attitude that a nation has towards immigration have become discordant in the recent age that have paved the way for the growth of Right- Wing Extremism across Europe. The national agendas are being defined by securitisation agenda helps in normalising the prejudices that are hostile to the Muslim communities. The lone actors in far-right are the people who are not secretive and cannot be detected easily. It has been argued by Rose (2018) that the government should develop long-term policy framework that can help in tackling the issue of far-right radicalisation. Personalisation of the attacks acts as a typical feature in relation to the lone actors. The lone actor terrorists make use of ideology along with personal grievances for the generation of specific worldviews. The issues related to mental health compels the right-wing extremists for engaging in violence.

Right wing Extremism and Digital Communication

The radical actors make use of internet that helps in the spread of Right Wing extremism. Online radicalisation acts as a component of that of the broader process of that of radicalisation. The low cost of Digital communications have paved the way for the emergence of the factor of Right Wing extremism. The content pertaining to radical right can help in promoting direct recourse to that of violence. According to Scrivens and Perry (2017), regular usage of the internet acts as correlate of the support in relation to violent protest among the large population. The radical-right organisations target the messages that helps in the shifting of mainstream political attitudes by taking recourse to the internet. Radical right groups will be able to enjoy success because of the activities that they carry out via the online mode. Online communication has helped in fuelling the growth of right wing extremism by facilitating dissemination of the extremist material to that of the new constituents. Online communication has played an important role in strengthening the movements and in mainstreaming of the fringe ideological points.

Social media has played a crucial role in fuelling internationalisation of the extreme right-wing movement. Online communication has played a pivotal role in broadcasting the activities of the right wing extremists to global audience. According to Swindal (2011) the right wing extremists are making use of sophisticated communication strategies that has enabled growth of counterculture. It has been stated by Van Assche et al. (2017) that the right wing extremists have deployed strategies that that has helped in disseminating the propaganda by marketing ideas to the new constituents. The German elections that took place in the year 2017 has shown how the network of the trolls can help in the dissemination of material that can slander political opponents. Online engagement helps in providing opportunity for the people to get involved in that of far-right extremism.

The right wing terrorists have become confident in the present age. Europe is going through a lot of stress that has manifested itself on the economic, social along with the political level. The migrants along with minorities are being used as scapegoat and right wing extremism have grown because of the rhetoric that is made use of by the States. The right wing parties exhibit differing degrees of aggressiveness and they lay emphasis on the social themes. According to Van Assche et al. (2017) the far right populists present themselves as being representative of people and they help in voicing the problems that the citizens face in the recent times. The right –wing extremists have become popular because of the fact that they rebel against the difficulties that societies have to go through in the recent age. The issue pertaining to migration along with globalisation are used in the present age that has fostered the growth of right wing extremism.

 The rise of Donald Trump in Europe along with UK’s vote of leaving the European Union have propelled the growth of right-wing extremism. It has been argued by Swindal (2011) that the catastrophic events taking place across the world have helped in fuelling growth of that of right wing extremism.

Populism and Xenophobia

The violence taking place in Federal Republic of Germany which is motivated by the ultra-right ideas have set the stage for emergence of right wing extremism. There was the fear in Germany that they would be swamped by the foreigners that caused them to vote for the right parties. Economic uncertainty along with unemployment acted as the main drivers of right wing extremism. Xenophobic mentality acts as strong sounding board that has helped the right-wing parties. According to Mudde (2013) the hatred that people of a country has towards the immigrants is another important cause that has to led to the flourishing of the aspect of right wing extremism. The jobs of the workers have disappeared owing to globalisation that have set the stage for the emergence of right wing extremism. Free trade agreements along with immigration act as the flashpoint in relation to the populist fury. The workers believe that their country cares for the goods that are cheap along with cheap labour that makes the people feel betrayed. This helps in providing opportunities for the rise of right-wing extremism as the people believe that it can be helpful in alleviating their suffering.

The Islamophobic attacks have resulted in the growth of Islamist-inspired terrorism. It helps in reflecting shift from that of the broader right-wing extremism. There exist a large portion of the ‘lone actor’ terrorists who are pre-occupied with the aspect of neo-Nazu symbolism. Western European societies have undergone changes drastically since de-regulation of financial sector. Dominance of the aspect of privatisation of the public utilities started from the era of 1980. This has paved the path for repurcussions for the youth identities specially in the arena of the urban sphere. The inner cities act as the site of the diverse communities. The white communities across the world suffer from the brunt of predicament that have caused extremism along with radicalisation.

Post-industrialisation have affected the Muslim minority groups in the various cities of that of Western Europe. According to Rose (2018) that deindustrialisation along with globalisation have a major impact on Muslim minority groups within inner cities of that of Western Europe. These concerns play an important part in having effect on the majority groups who would move to far right political view so that they can get solace. Separating of white indigenous and the Muslim minority groups exist owing to identity formation at local along with global level. It helps in revealing distinct layer of the conflict that helps in locking the groups in a struggle within the society. According to Swindal (2011), most important denominator that has set the stage for right-wing extremism is the ethno-nationalist idea pertaining to citizenship. The nativist stance highlight the fact that states should be inhabited by the members of the native group. It is held that the non-native elements threatens the existence of the homogeneous nation-states. It has been stated by Mudde (2013) that the structural context for the emergence of right wing extremism has been set by the emergence of authoritarianism. Radical right has been able to occupy a new position in the landscape owing to changing environment. The radical right acts as “third wave” of the right-wing radicalism in the post-war European democracies. The intellectual movement taking place in the era of 1970 called New Right acted as force for the spread of the right-wing ideological renewal. New Right laid stress on the aspect of incompatibility of the cultures that helped in advocating legitimacy of the European resistance to that of cultural mixing.

Conclusion:

Right wing politics believes in the fact that social order within the society should be on basis of the natural law. Right wing terrorism holds the notion that inequality exists in society on account of traditional social differences. The biological factors have paved the path for emergence of right wing extremism in the various countries of the world. Violent socialisation has created the path for growth of that of right wing extremism in Europe. Online radicalisation acts as an important component that aids the process pertaining to radicalisation. The digital communications are of low cost that has spread the influence of right wing extremism. Right wing extremism has emerged to become popular due to rhetoric that is made use of by the States. Right wing parties lay stress on social themes that helps in catering them to the group of the people. The right populists help in voicing the concerns of the people that makes them popular among large section of the population. Post-industrialisation has an effect on that of minority groups living within Western Europe. The policies of right wing extremism helps in alleviating the suffering of the people. Globalisation has a great amount of effect on that of Muslim minority groups who live in the different inner cities of Western Europe. Right wing extremism has helped in addressing the demands of these people that has helped in the growth of right wing extremism. It can hence be concluded that there does not exist any universal factor that has caused the incidence of the radical right wing shift. Right wing extremism occurs due to radicalisation, populism, xenophobia, digital communication and digital communication.

References:

Mudde, C. (2013). Three decades of populist radical right parties in Western Europe: So what?. European Journal of Political Research, 52(1), 1-19.

Rose, M. (2018). THE ANTI-CHRISTIAN ALT-RIGHT. First Things, (281), 1-12.

Scrivens, R., & Perry, B. (2017). Resisting the Right: Countering Right-Wing Extremism in Canada. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 59(4), 534-558.

Swindal, M. G. (2011). Ideology and Social Position in Poland: The Determinants of Voting for the Right, 1991–2005. Social Science Quarterly, 92(1), 185-205.

Van Assche, J., Roets, A., De Keersmaecker, J., & Van Hiel, A. (2017). The mobilizing effect of right?wing ideological climates: Cross?level interaction effects on different types of outgroup attitudes. Political Psychology, 38(5), 757-776.