Radical-Right and Neo-Fascist Political Parties in Western Europe

Far right-wing parties have gained dramatically in many West European countries since the early 1980s.Recent cross-national studies distinguish between neo-fascist parties, which are anti-democratic and anti-capitalist, and radical right-wing parties which combine antiimmigration appeals with pro-capitalist, neo-liberal economic positions, social conservatism, and a basic acceptance of representative democracy.While the former have been stagnant and unimportant, the latter have been gaining.Yet there are also borderline cases where it is more difficult to determine whether the party rejects fascism and accepts democracy, a problem which the theoretical literature has neglected.The far right's success is largely due to the politicization of immigration issues, political alienation, and backlashes against welfare states.many far-right parties recently gained at the polls, while others have failed?Single-case studies are a good place to start in answering these questions.These studies typically characterize a single national-level far-right party, describe its development, and offer an explanation for its recent success.This literature has offered four different views of the parties' goals and the reasons for their growth.The first view focuses on immigration.2 Immigration into Western Europe increased in the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially from the former Yugoslavia, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union.According to the immigration thesis, the social effects of immigration, along with high levels of economic insecurity, benefitted far-right parties, which argued against immigration on the basis of its supposed connections with unemployment and crime.In this view, these are single-issue parties, which represent popular xenophobia.The second explanation rests on political alienation. 3 Many voters' general dissatisfaction with how established parties have responded to various issues (economic growth, unemployment, corruption, crime, drugs, immigration) has led them to distrust all established parties and politicians.The resulting potential for protest voting has been exploited by the far right, aided by its anti-establishment message and lack of governing experience.The electoral prospects of farright parties depend inversely on the credibility of established parties and political systems, and does not necessarily signal a deeper movement by voters toward far-right positions on substantive issues.The third approach, which is most common in the popular press as well as among some academic authors, holds that the far-right parties reflect a resurgence, in somewhat new forms, of interwar fascist movements. 4According to the neo-fascist thesis, successful far-right parties