This book is a comparative analysis of the post-communist East European radical right, both in party and non-party formation, using the West European radical right as a baseline. Minkenberg offers insights into the political field of the radical right since the onset of democracy in the region and elicits region-wide and country-specific characteristics. The book argues that due to the nature of the transition process from Soviet hegemony to national independence and from communist to democratic societies, and the unfinished process of nation-building in the region, the radical right in Eastern Europe is a phenomenon
sui generis, both organizationally more fluid and ideologically more extreme than the Western counterpart. The issues covered include trends in party system and electoral developments, patterns of movement mobilization and racist activism, and the impact of the radical right on their countries politics and policies.
Abbreviations
List of Figures
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Acknowledgments
Introduction
1.Concepts: Analyzing the East European Radical Right
a)A Concept of the Radical Right in Comparative Perspective
b)Conceptual Enlargement: the Radical Right and the East European Context
c)Modeling the Mobilization and Interaction of the Radical Right
2.Contexts: Legacies and the Transformation Process
a)The Return of the Past or the Return to Europe - the Question of Legacies
b)Cultural Context: Nation Building and Nationalism
c)Structural Context: Regime Change and Modernization