The Rise and the Fall of the Extreme Right in Europe: Towards an Explanation?

In the last two decades, the extreme right has experience a dramatic rise in electoral support in many West European democracies, achieving more parliamentary support and even more governmental power. Despite extensive interest in this phenomenon and a myriad of academic publications about it, both in sociology and political science, little consensus has been reached about the reasons for the observed growth of right wing extremism. Three books; The Extreme Right in Western Europe by Elizabeth Carter, Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe by Piero Ignazi and Radical Right by Pippa Norris, try to overcome this lack of consensus through up-to-date analysis of the current situation of extreme right-wing parties in Western Europe and (in Norris' case) even beyond.