Extremism & Democracy in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This panel examines extremism and its implications for democratic politics through a comparative analysis of party systems, ideological competition, and political opposition in Latin America and Europe. The papers move beyond a narrow focus on far-right supporters to analyse the social and political bases of opposition to far-right actors in Latin America, alongside detailed mappings of far-right organisational structures and internal variation. Other contributions address broader questions of ideology and programmatic positioning, measuring nationalist policy positions across regions using comparative party survey data and reassessing claims about the “end of ideology” in contemporary party politics. By combining regional and cross-regional perspectives, the panel sheds light on how extremist actors are embedded within party systems, how they are contested, and how ideological visions of the future are articulated or transformed. Taken together, the papers offer new conceptual and empirical insights into the relationship between extremism, political competition, and democratic resilience across different democratic contexts.

Title	Details
The End of Ideology — or is It? Reconceptualising Political Parties’ Vision of the Future in Europe and Latin America	View Paper Details
Measuring Party Nationalist Policy Positions Across Regions: A Comparative Analysis Using the Political Representation, Executives, and Political Parties Survey (PREPPS)	View Paper Details
Mapping the Far-Right in Latin America: Organizational Structures and Internal Variation	View Paper Details
Beyond the Far Right’s Support Base: Mapping Its Opponents in Latin America	View Paper Details