The Sociology of the Radical Right

During the past two decades, the radical right has reemerged as an electoral force in Western Europe, as well as in other stable democracies such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Aside from discussing the ideology of this party family and how it relates to older forms of right-wing radicalism and extremism, such as fascism, this review deals with the question of how the emergence of radical right-wing parties can be explained and why such parties have been considerably more successful among voters in some countries than in others. Possible explanations are grouped into two parts: The first consists of so-called demand-centered explanations, that is, explanations that focus on changing preferences, beliefs, and attitudes among voters. The second consists of so-called supply-side explanations, that is, explanations that focus on political opportunity structures and party organizational factors.