Beyond Actor-Centered Approaches: Studying Far-Right Contention in an Era of Normalization

The literature on far-right contentious politics has predominantly focused on specific radical- and extreme-right actors. However, there has recent theoretical work highlights the dynamism characterizing the far right. In particular, research on the normalization and mainstreaming of the far right stresses that nativist and authoritarian ideas, discourses, and practices expand well beyond specific far-right actors. Yet the operationalization of the far right in contentious politics remains rather rigid. This issue becomes particularly relevant when studying far-right contention through protest events analysis, as far-right actors may not be reported in media sources due to description bias or because far-right actors deliberately hide their presence within the crowd. In this paper, we argue that this dominant approach covers only one part of the empirical phenomenon. We propose a new conceptual understanding for studying far-right contention that goes beyond actors and looks at what is raised in the protests (claims and issues). We illustrate our argument with empirical observations from cases of far-right contention in Germany, Italy, and Spain. We conclude by identifying avenues for future research on the normalization of the far right in contentious politics.