The Standing Group provides a platform and infrastructure to the broad range of scholars working on various aspects of 'extremism and democracy' around the world.
We welcome scholars from fields such as sociology, (social) psychology or (contemporary) history. However, as a Standing Group of the ECPR, our main focus is on the political aspects of extremism. Moreover, and in keeping with the ECPR-tradition, we particularly welcome scholars who work in a comparative spirit.
The Standing Group is academically neutral and is not meant to become a battle ground for the unfortunate ideological clashes that have hampered much research on political extremism. Rather, it provides a meeting ground for serious scholars from all theoretical persuasions. Although we use the term 'extremism', we do not want to exclude scholars working with other terms to describe similar phenomena.
While most contemporary academic studies of extremism still study the phenomenon in isolation of its environment, the Standing Group's name indicates its interest in the political role of extremism, as well as the specifics of the phenomenon itself. We are therefore particularly interested in the (inter-)relation between extremism and democracy.

The remit of the Standing Group is broad:
– We welcome scholars whose work is empirical and those who adopt political theoretical/philosophical approaches
​​​​​​​– We bring together colleagues who work on a vast range of topics and themes (including, protest, political violence, terrorism, religious fundamentalism, identity, nationalism, racism, immigration, Fascism and Nazism, political parties of right and left, elections and voting, etc.)
– We aim to integrate scholars from all corners of the globe