Responses to Extremists and the Implications for Extremist Support

With the recent surge in support for far-right parties, xenophobia and nativism have suddenly become more widespread across Europe. The far-right’s success has put fundamental civil and political liberties under threat at home, especially for visible minorities, and raised the question of how mainstream parties should react to these extremists. Should they refuse to cooperate with the far-right and seek to isolate them from power? Or, should they accept them as legitimate democratic actors and include them in the political process? This study examines this question, focusing in particular on how isolation or inclusion strategies matter for the far-right’s support. Drawing on the four waves of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems data set and examining both vote choice and electoral sympathy for the far-right over time, we find that strategy matters—isolation appears to decrease both types of support for the far-right, whereas inclusion appears to increase it among both voters and non-voters of these parties.