Memories of the 1930s inform much contemporary political commentary on the impact of economic hard times on political extremism. Indeed, support for anti-system parties –defined as explicitly advocating the overthrow of a country’s political system– has been considerably growing during the period of financial crisis culminating in extreme right-wing parties’ gaining parliamentary representation, while new modes of non-electoral protest, with a clear anti-parliamentary rhetoric, have recently become common in many European countries. This workshop will: (a) present empirical research on the rise of extremism in and out of parliaments; (b) test theoretical interpretations of this rise on the grounds of difficult economic conditions against other sets of explanations which have been suggested; (c) identify similarities between those different expressions of extremism –in or out of parliaments– as far as their political discourse, mobilization forms and communication framing are concerned.
Please express your interest in presenting a paper in the workshop by sending an e-mail to workshop co-ordinator, Iannis Konstantinidis, at icons@uom.edu.gr . An abstract of no more than 200 words should be attached to this e-mail message. Deadline for submission of abstracts: 25th August 2014.