Political extremism in democracies
Subtitle: combating intolerance
By: William M. Downs
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780230340794
Subjects: Toleration; Right-wing extremists; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / Political Parties; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Civics & Citizenship; Radicalism; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy; Political parties
Description: "Political Extremism in Democracies: Combating Intolerance is a theoretically inspired, empirically rich study of political parties that have been branded as untouchable pariahs. Democracy's painful paradox seems to require tolerance of the intolerant, but democracy's defenders instead often ostracize and repress illiberal parties even when they enjoy broad electoral support. Drawing evidence from systematic comparison of contemporary pariah parties in seven European countries, the book classifies strategic responses of mainstream political actors and advances a framework for understanding cross-national differences. An inescapable, if normatively controversial, finding is that quarantining or banning extremists is less successful at containing or rolling back perceived threat than some forms of regulated inclusion"--