By Daniel E. Levenson, Democracy and Security Volume 16, 2020 - Issue 1, https://doi.org/10.1080/17419166.2020.1707983
In The Far Right Today, author Cas Mudde makes a decent argument for his central thesis, which is that there is a discernable trend in which erstwhile mainstream right-wing political parties have either adopted, or been co-opted by, radical right ideology and political objectives. He does this by providing examples from eastern Europe to the United States to India, of the degree to which once relatively fringe (and notably intolerant) views on topics such as immigration, race, and central principles of liberal democracy have been embraced by a larger share, of, if not the citizenry as a whole, then certainly the electorate. Perhaps one of the most striking example of this shift can be found in eastern Europe, where Mudde highlights the impact that time and psychic distance have apparently had on the descendants of those who survived the continental conflagration fueled by the fascists during World War II, suggesting that as the atrocities which defined this conflict have faded further and further from living memory, fertile ground has reemerged, allowing if not precisely the same ideology, then similar ideas, to take root once again.
One of the services that Mudde renders to his readers is in his explication of, as he sees it, two different manifestations of the far right, the first being the “extreme right” which the author states, “… rejects the essence of democracy, that is, popular sovereignty and majority rule,” and the second, which he labels the “radical right.” Mudde writes of this second group that it, “… accepts the essence of democracy, but opposes fundamental elements of liberal democracy, most notably minority rights, rule of law, and separation of powers (7). This bifurcation and identification of two separate strands within the broader concept of the “far right,” serves Mudde’s argument well throughout this book. Like a great river that divides in two, only to meet again downstream, these manifestations are essentially of one piece, but take different paths and forms at various points in history. While he does not downplay the damage that Hitler, Mussolini, and others on the extreme right have done in the past, Mudde does make it clear to the reader that in our current age it is the radical right, with its ostensibly populist agenda and its promise of restoring nations to some mythic, pseudo-historical, past glory that deserves the greatest measure of our concern. A central and quite convincing theme in this book is that by cloaking itself in a veneer of false patriotism and projecting the image that they possess a popular mandate, the radical right has managed to attract both voters and opportunistic politicians.
At the heart of far right movements, Mudde argues, lies a rejection of the principle of equality. It is not merely that its proponents feel that their worldview will lead to a better political or social system, but that theirs is the only legitimate way of building a government or constructing a society. Such an ideological bent not only encourages intolerance for “the other” but in extreme cases creates an environment in which not just the exclusion, but the destruction of others who hold opposing beliefs, is seen as mandatory and even valorous.
For readers who are familiar with the rise (and fall) of organizations like Identity Evropa (and its apparent successor, the American Identity Movement) or the Proud Boys, Mudde’s description of the defining qualities of the radical right, with its embrace of nativist rhetoric and implicit mistrust of anyone not of white, northern European, descent, will feel familiar. Similarly, for readers in the US and Europe, Mudde’s argument that the political landscape has been titling perilously toward the far right with the prominence of figures like Marine Le Pen in France or President Donald Trump in the United States, is likely to resonate at least on an intuitive level.
Mudde’s chosen topic is certainly current, and bound to raise questions in the minds of his readers. One particularly thought-provoking observation he offers is that, “As sociocultural issues have come to dominate the political agenda, and mainstream parties have increasingly adopted the frames of the radical right, it comes as little surprise that populist radical right parties have increased not only their electoral support but also their political impact” (166). Such a statement is alarming not only in its implications for particular governments, but for the very concepts that underlie civil society, raising a host of questions, among them: Does this mean that society as a whole is shifting to the right? Should we more correctly view movements that coalesced around issues such as civil rights, the environment, equality in education and the workplace for women, and others, that emerged in the US in the 1960s and 1970s as aberrant – more akin to the flash of hope one sees in the Reconstruction era before the brutality of Jim Crow ushered in a century of devolution in human rights and equality, as opposed to the vanguard of lasting change? As well as, perhaps, most worrisome, the question of whether, how, and when this rise of the radical right might eventually lead to the reemergence of Mudde’s “extreme right” – in other words, at what point does an anti-immigrant, implicitly racist, anti-Semitic political movement gain enough influence to reveal what might be its “true” colors and implement an overtly extremist, even fascist, program on the population?
The last is a question that Mudde does not explore in this book, although reading his work against the backdrop of history it does not take much a of a leap of imagination to envision such a transition. In fact, I think one can easily read Mudde’s book as a warning to contemporary leaders and citizens alike – ignore the flames around you at your peril, he seems to suggest, for fire is an unpredictable thing and even the smallest sparks left unattended may eventually become all consuming. One way we might measure the slide from liberal democracy to nativist ethnocracy is to use Mudde’s observation about the ways that the far right seeks to influence mainstream politics once its proponents finally attain power. The author writes, “When the populist radical right comes to power in a liberal democracy, it tries to move the country in an illiberal direction, undermining the independence of courts and the media, snubbing minority rights, and weakening the separation of powers” (114). If such moves, regardless of their eventual efficacy, point consistently toward far right powerplays within government, then they are perhaps the kind of actions society should be most concerned with, especially as political thought and discourse becomes increasingly divided and divisive in the US and elsewhere. Viewed through this lens, the image one gets of the US at present is not an optimistic one – in fact, Mudde’s observations remind us that many liberal democracies have struggled, with and against, the influence of the radical right, and at present, there is every reason to think that at a national level, America’s system of checks and balances may be at its nadir when it comes to upholding liberal principles of fairness, equality, and justice, as the far right continues to gain ground in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.
There are plenty of historical examples one can find in which an extremist political movement – far right or otherwise – produced both supporters and leaders whose mutual support for one another paved the way for the eventual emergence of totalitarian regimes. Anti-immigrant ideas, for example, are ripe for exploitation by radical right leaders, who prey on the fear and ignorance of certain segments of the electorate for whom this is an appealing message. As the author notes, these kinds of leaders bundle xenophobia with implicit white supremacist ideology and conspiracy theories to produce a political message that is designed to appeal to their constituents. Mudde writes, “Populist radical right politicians believe that mass immigration is not driven by poverty in developing countries, but organized by progressive politicians in the developed countries, who either hate their own nation or try to compensate for their lost electorate – which partly went to the populist radical right – by ‘importing’ new voters” (32).
There is little question that Mudde knows this topic well and brings a deep base of experience to this book – at the same time, it might have provided additional insights into the attitudes and approaches of the people involved in far right movements if he had included interviews with any of the key figures – be they ideological or political – who appear throughout the text. For the purposes of his book, one can imagine that Mudde might have spoken with some of the people behind the scenes of these movements and political campaigns, and allowed their own words to help frame and inform the conversation.
Mudde acknowledges in his book that it is a relatively short work, and, frankly, I think that had he chosen to do so, the author could have produced a volume of twice as many pages. One possible point of expansion would have been to provide a deeper dive into the historical roots and contemporary currents which have allowed both the radical and extreme right in different countries over the last century to flourish at various points, even if only in the form of relatively short, but often quite destructive, flashes. A comparison, for example, of the manner in which the nascent National Socialists were able to grasp then grab power during the Weimar period in Germany, and the grass-roots efforts underway by far right actors in places like Hungary today, would be both interesting and useful.
Structurally, Mudde makes economic use of endnotes, and provides his readers with a useful chronology and index at the back of the book. The author also includes several pages of recommendations for further reading on a range of different aspects of far right activity, although it might have made more sense, in terms of format, to list his suggestions under headings and subheadings for ease of reference.
In his own words, Mudde’s goal in writing this book was:
“ … to provide an accessible and concise overview of the fourth wave of postwar far right. While it includes several original observations which will also be of interest to more expert readers, this book is first and foremost written for a non-academic audience; for people who follow the news, are concerned about the rise of the far right, but feel that media accounts provide too little detail and insight, while academic and non-academic books are too complex or simply too long” (4).
In the end, Mudde achieves what he set out to do, giving his readers a succinct, timely and appropriately troubling snapshot of the current state of the far right, and in this new work he reminds us that we have seen the rise of the far right in previous eras, and without fail, such regimes have been exclusive, destructive, and backward-looking – each element practically guaranteed to ensure failure in our collective efforts to create more tolerant societies. While Mudde’s vision of the present may be less than sanguine, there is a glimmer of hope, with the possibility that by developing a clear picture of the extreme and radical far right as they exist today, that we can better resist the negative vision it offers for the future, and instead support those countervailing liberal political trends which will lead us away from the darkness and fear at the core of both strains of the far right and toward the light of our better angels. To do otherwise, Mudde’s book suggests, is to cede more of the mainstream to the extreme.
Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2020.
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