German Perspectives on Right-Wing Extremism : Challenges for Comparative Analysis

This book discusses right-wing extremism by analysing Germanophone research on this topic for the first time in English, including unique survey data from Germany and Austria. Highlighting how questions of terminology can become complicated when country cases are compared, the authors analyse theoretical and methodological issues in relation to the question of right-wing extremism. In Anglo-American academia, the term is often associated with fairly rare phenomena in the form of extremist political groups, whereas in Germany the term is often applied to a wide range of attitudes, behaviours and parties, including those which operate more within the mainstream political sphere.

Covering an array of sub-fields such as right-wing terrorism, iconography of the extreme right and the Germanophone discussion on the differentiation of right-wing populism and right-wing extremism, the authors account not only for the centrality of right-wing extremist attitudes in Germanophone research, but also point at its often overlooked relevance for the phenomenon in general. Offering an important insight into the nuanced definition of right-wing extremism across Europe and enhancing both international debate and cross-country comparative research, this book will be of interest to students and scholars researching extremism, German politics and European politics more generally.

Johannes Kiess is Researcher in the EU FP7-project LIVEWHAT at the University of Siegen, Germany, and a phd candidate in political science.

Oliver Decker is a Member of the Faculty of Medicine at the University Leipzig, Germany, Head of the Research Unit Societal Change and Modern Medicine, and Head of the Center for the Study of Right Wing Extremism and Democracy.

Elmar Brähler was until 2013 the head of the Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology at the University of Leipzig, Germany, and is responsible for a longitudinal research project monitoring the right-wing extremism attitudes in Germany (with Oliver Decker).