Beyond Mainstreaming: Rethinking Far-Right Integration, Expansion, and Democratic Responses

Abstract

This panel critically interrogates the dominant "mainstreaming" paradigm in far-right studies, proposing new conceptual frameworks and strategic insights for understanding how far-right actors achieve legitimacy, expand their constituencies, and reshape democratic politics in increasingly authoritarian contexts. Moving beyond linear narratives of ideological moderation or unidirectional influence, papers explore the complex, multidirectional dynamics through which far-right and mainstream actors mutually constitute contemporary political landscapes. Papers in this panel challenge conventional understandings of far-right normalisation and mainstreaming, exploring topics like how populist radical right parties attempt to expand electoral appeal to previously marginalised groups; how mainstream parties actively adopt far-right strategies rather than merely accommodating external far-right pressure; how the concept of "mainstreaming" itself requires analytical precision, distinguishing between moderation of far-right actors, radicalisation of mainstream parties, and shifts in public opinion as potentially mutually reinforcing processes; and how effective responses to the far right must be understood across multiple dimensions - actors, arenas, and timing - rather than through narrow electoral metrics. Together, these papers demonstrate that the relationship between the far right and the mainstream is neither unidirectional nor reducible to convergence or divergence. This panel highlights how far-right parties recognise and exploit de facto societal pluralism, how they deploy "divide and conquer" strategies that reverse hierarchies within minority groups, and how mainstream actors possess agency in producing rather than merely responding to far-right politics.

Title	Details
Mainstreaming of the Far Right: Anti-Woke Backlash or the Return of History?	View Paper Details
Countering the Far Right: What Responses Really Work, When, and Why?	View Paper Details
Far-Righting the Mainstream: Endogenous Drivers of Reactionary Shifts in Western Party Politics	View Paper Details
Beyond Mainstreaming: Exploring the Populist Radical Right Brand of Pluralism	View Paper Details
Not Only Mainstreaming, but Also Sidestreaming. How the Populist Radical Right Discursively Mobilises Female Voters When Using the "Divide and Conquer" Strategy.	View Paper Details