Political Extremism in Democracies: Combating Intolerance - Hardcover

Downs, William M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0230340792 ISBN 13: 9780230340794

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Synopsis

How do democracies resolve the paradox of having to tolerate the intolerant in their midst?  Specifically, when political "extremists" - organized into parties that compete openly and successfully in democratic elections - enter the conventional institutional arena, how do mainstream actors react? Established democracies founded on principles of free voice and open competition typically struggle with how best to cope with pariah parties that ostensibly play by the rules of the democratic game but then espouse exclusive and rejectionist positions. Cross-national evidence demonstrates significant variation in responses to pariah parties, from outright bans to calculated disregard. The results of those actions appear to likewise vary in dramatic ways.  While considerable research has been published looking at the historical, sociological, and economic conditions that help explain the resurgence and persistence of party-based extremism (especially the far-right variant) in western democracies, we presently know remarkably little about the relationship between democracy and efforts to combat extremism.  This book deals with understanding how democracies respond to party-based extremism and with what consequences.  Political Extremism in Democracies: Combating Intolerance is theoretically inspired and empirically rich. With in-depth case analysis of pariah parties in seven European countries, the book classifies strategic responses of mainstream political actors and advances a framework for understanding cross-national differences. An inescapable, if normatively controversial, finding is that quarantining or banning extremists is less successful at containing or rolling back the perceived threat than some forms of regulated inclusion.

About this title

About the Author

WILLIAM M. DOWNS is the Associate Dean for Social and Behavioral Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Political Science, and the Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and Democracy at Georgia State University. He is the author of Coalition Government, Subnational Style: Multiparty Politics in Europe's Regional Parliaments and has published research articles on political parties, electoral behavior, legislative institutions, and extremism in such journals as Parliamentary Affairs, West European Politics, Electoral Studies, Government & Opposition, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Contemporary Politics, and Perspectives on European Politics and Society. Downs has held a Fulbright research fellowship in Belgium, been a research fellow at Harvard University's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, and served as a visiting faculty member at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Review

This theoretically insightful and empirically rich study shows that there is no universal way of dealing with these parties; the choices come with risks and consequences, no matter what they are. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. -- H. A. Welsh, Wake Forest University  --Reviewed in 2013apr CHOICE

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0230340792
• ISBN 13: 9780230340794
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 254