Perspectives on the New Right

Over the last 30 years, the study of the Extreme/Radical/Populist Right has flourished as a sub-discipline of both party and electoral research, somewhat paralleling the success of these parties and movements. As well as becoming the focus of significant case-specific and comparative work in stable democracies, the end of communism and the integration of the new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe into the European Union have further spurred interest in these ‘New Right’ parties and movements and in their voters and supporters. Additional sub-disciplinary literatures including political communication, political economy, public opinion and political theory now also constitute a core part of the corpus of work this topic. This section seeks to bring together state-of-the-art research from these approaches on New Right parties and movements and their voters and followers. It aims to coordinate panels and papers that focus on key aspects of New Right parties and voting, and New Right movements, including: i) internal organisational, programmatic and strategic aspects of New Right parties and movements, ii) the influence of systemic, institutional and other contextual factors on these actors, and iii) the structure and behaviour of members, voters and followers of these organisations. Since the section is keen to facilitate further cooperation between members working across the variety of sub-disciplines, contributions bridging these thematic divisions and adopting a comparative approach are of particular interest. Papers that bridge the divide between party research and electoral research and/or employ new data and methodologies are especially welcome. The section is strongly endorsed by the ECPR Standing Group on Extremism and Democracy.