Far right

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Far right, extreme right, ultra-right, or radical right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or relative position a group or person occupies within a political spectrum. The terms "far right" and "far left" are often used to say that someone is an "extremist." "Far right" is thus usually a pejorative term used by outsiders rather than a self-label.

The label far right is usually applied to ideologies and political movements which embrace racism, male chauvinism, monarchism, military rule, religious fundamentalism, nationalism, ethnocentrism to a degree significantly greater than is common in the society at large.

Contents

[edit] Usage

? This article or section may contain original research or unattributed claims.
Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.
See also: Left-Right politics

The term "far right" is usually rejected by right-wing political parties that consider themselves "mainstream". "Far right" ideologies and movements often advocate against substantial government intervention, like mainstream right-wing thought, but unlike the mainstream of the right, the far right will often be strong advocates for forcibly intervening in society in order to protect or promote those values that are viewed as "traditional". It is often associated with hardline nationalism. This is in contrast to the left-wing, who advocate intervention in favor of "equality", and give little or no authority to "tradition". Both stand in contrast also to less interventionist positions such as conservatism, liberalism, and libertarianism, each of which gives varying weights to the value of tradition and equality.

The terms "left" and "right" used in this way arose during the French Revolution. The original meaning of "far right" was the "throne-and-altar" conservatives, like Joseph de Maistre and Louis de Bonald, who rejected democracy, liberalism and individualism, and were in favour of an authoritarian monarchical government. They further proclaimed the submission of the individual to the so-called "natural associations" (families, regions, professions, nations, etc.). For them, we should obey our superiors in Earth (the father in family, the King in the state, the Pope in the Church) because their authority is the mirror of the authority of God in the Universe.

Naturally, in societies that differ significantly from Ancien Régime France, the term takes on a completely different meaning. The original French meaning is specific to a Roman Catholic nation, and more specifically to a Gallican society in which church and state were closely tied to one another. It can be expanded to include the kind of Caesaropapism that occasionally existed in some Orthodox kingdoms, but is poorly equipped to deal with the idea there even can be a far right outside the Catholic/Orthodox world. This interpretation of "far right" especially lost favor in the decades following the Revolutions of 1848 as a return to the Ancien Régime became increasingly implausible. By the reign of Pope Pius XI this interpretation of far-right had essentially become anachronistic even in conservative Catholic circles. Therefore this original meaning is somewhat rare in a modern context. See Traditionalist School, Ultramontanism, and Reactionary for more on this ideological stream.

In the modern world, the term far right is applied to those who support authoritarian policies in support of policies which are considered "right" rather than "left". In regions and nations that have no real history of monarchy, such as Central America (discounting the Pre-Columbian era), Switzerland, and the United States, far-right politics is rarely monarchist, and usually advocate harsher law enforcement, particularly against disfavored groups, and sometimes fascist or military rule.

The term "far right" also embraces extreme nationalism, and far-right groups will often evoke a "pure" ideal of the nation, often defined on racial or "blood" grounds. They may advocate the expansion or restructuring of existing state borders to achieve this ideal nation, often to the point of embracing expansionary war and imperialism. In the English-speaking nations this is often a nationalism descended from the militant aspects of British New Imperialism. Hence the groups labelled far-right often embrace state churches, harshly retributive justice, and militarism.

Fascism is generally, but not universally, classified as a far-right ideology. Libertarian scholars such as F. A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises are noteworthy dissenters from that view; both have labeled it far left (see Fascism and ideology). However, some Miseans like Murray Rothbard put fascism on the right.

Some political figures move from far left to far right. Mussolini is one example of such a circumstance, and Bill White (neo-Nazi) is another. National Bolshevism, the international third position and national anarchism are often regarded as far right, but they transcend the boundaries of ordinary politics. To further complicate matters, populism, social unrest, violence, and revolution can be found in both the far right and far left. Concern with ecology and calls for full employment and other concerns common on the left are sometimes found in the far right.

A further complication is found in Nazism and other "national-revolutionary" ideologies, such as those of Juan Peron in Argentina, Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, the Baath in Syria and Iraq and groups like International Third Position or the "national-anarchism". On one hand, these movements are nationalist and anti-communist; but they mobilize essentially the lower and middle-classes and, when in power, have often nationalized property, especially property owned by foreigners or by members of ethnicities not defined by them as part of their "nation".

The term "far right" has been used for certain populist or authoritarian regimes, especially for "free market dictatorships". The epitome of such regimes was that of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, but it can be seen (with less market freedom) in many other twentieth-century Latin American military dictatorships.

While the term is occasionally applied to the supporters of extreme laissez-faire capitalism such as some libertarians, calling the libertarians "far right" or even "right" is a matter of controversy. The libertarians consider themselves as the heirs of the classical liberals, the main enemies of the first far-right. In his essay "Left and Right: the Prospects for Liberty" [1] and "Confessions of a Right-Wing Liberal" [2], Murray Rothbard even put libertarianism on the "left", claiming that conservatives are the right and socialists merely "middle-of-the road". However, George Lakoff, in his book Moral Politics, states that libertarianism draws from the conservative metaphorical model of American political ideology.

The imprecise use of the terms "left" and "right" in politics, and there being no absolute consensus as to what the "archetypes" of left and right are, has led to a number of disputes over the proper usage of "far right" and "far left" other than as general terms of derision. "Far right" and "far left" are meant to describe two diametrically opposed extremes. However, there are a good number of arguably extremist groups and ideologies that don't fit in the traditional far left and far right categories, and many seem to fit in both.

Radical right-wing populism is a far right ideology which accepts representative democracy, but criticizes political "elites" and appeals to ethno-nationalism.

[edit] Terminology

The "Far Right," "Radical Right," "Hard Right" and "Extreme Right" are terms used by many political commentators to discuss political groups, movements, and political parties that are difficult to classify within conventional right-wing politics. Much confusion is caused by widely varying usage of these terms, however. The term Far Right is used in different ways by different authors. It has been used by scholars in at least three somewhat conflicting ways to encompass:

  • Reform-oriented right-wing movements or rightist factions of conservative political parties. These are sometimes called the dissident right, activist right, or right-wing populism, These are all forms of Right-wing politics located between traditional conservatives and the extreme right. In this case participants are found outside mainstream electoral politics, but they generally produce a movement of drastic reform rather than actual revolution.
  • Neo-fascists and Neo-Nazis are usually labeled extreme right or ultra right. Such groups are generally revolutionary in character rather than reformist. Neo-Nazi and Neo-Fascist literally means "new Nazi" or "New Fascist" This label is to differentiate their placement in History as coming after the original Nazis or Fascists from the early part of the 20th century through World War II.
  • The whole range of right-wing politics from the borders of conservatism out to the far reaches of the extreme right.

Even these categorisations are by no means universally accepted, and other uses exist, making comparative use of the term complicated.

The terms Extreme right or Ultra right are used by some scholars to discuss only those right-wing political groups that step outside the boundaries of traditional electoral politics. This generally includes the revolutionary right, militant racial supremacists and religious extremists, Fascists, neo-fascists, Nazis, and neo-Nazis. In this usage the terms are distinct from other forms of right wing politics such as the less-militant sectors of the Far Right and Right-Wing Populists, as well as from the more traditional conservatives (Betz & Immerfall 1998; Betz 1994; Durham 2000; Durham 2002; Hainsworth 2000; Mudde 2000)

[edit] Parties labeled as "Far Right" or "Extreme Right"

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Left and Right: the Prospects for Liberty", Murray Rothbard
  2. ^ "Confessions of a Right-Wing Liberal", Murray Rothbard
  3. ^ a b Mahony, Honor. "Far-right group formed in European Parliament", EUobserver, 2007-01-09. Retrieved on January 10, 2007.
  4. ^ a b Traynor, Ian. "Romania's first gift to the European Union - a caucus of neo-fascists and Holocaust deniers", The Guardian, 2007-01-08. Retrieved on January 10, 2007.
  5. ^ "Rechtsaußenfraktion im EU-Parliament kommt", Der Standard, 2007-01-05. Retrieved on January 10, 2007.(German)
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ignazi, Piero (1997), "The Extreme Right in Europe", in Merkl, Peter H. & Leonard Weinberg, The Revival of Right-Wing Extremism in the Nineties, London: Peter Cass
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Mudde, Cas (2000). The Ideology of the Extreme Right. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press. 
  8. ^ Far-right party shows surprising strength in Austrian vote, CNN, October 3, 1999.
  9. ^ Political forces, Economist Country Briefings: Austria, 14 November 2006.
  10. ^ Political forces, Economist Country Briefings: Austria, 14 November 2006.
  11. ^ Cynthia M. Frank, The Impact of Electoral Engineering on Nationalist Parties in Post-War States, master's thesis (Georgia State University). Accessed 16 February 2007.
  12. ^ Rise of the Right: Denmark, BBC News (undated) refers to the party as "extreme right-wing", but qualifies it as "milder in its approach than other European far-right parties." Accessed 16 February 2007.
  13. ^ ENF gathers in Athens from the European National Front website.
  14. ^ a b Rydgren, Jens. Radical Right-wing Populism in Sweden and Denmark. The Centre for the Study of European Politics and Society. Retrieved on May 25, 2006.
  15. ^ Rise of the Right: Switzerland, BBC News (undated).
  16. ^ British National Party: Nasty, brutish and short-lived?, The Economist, August 5, 2004.

[edit] References

  • Betz, Hans-Georg and Stefan Immerfall, eds. 1998. The New Politics of the Right: Neo-Populist Parties and Movements in Established Democracies. New York: St. Martin's Press.
  • Betz, Hans-Georg (1994). Radical Right-wing Populism in Western Europe. New York: St. Martins Press.
  • Durham, Martin (2000). The Christian Right, the Far Right and the Boundaries of American Conservatism. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.
  • Durham, Martin (2002). "From Imperium to Internet: the National Alliance and the American Extreme Right" Patterns of Prejudice 36(3), (July): 50-61.
  • Hainsworth, Paul (2000). The Politics of the Extreme Right: From the Margins to the Mainstream. London: Pinter.
  • Schoenbaum, David. Hitler's Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939. ISBN 0-393-31554-1
  • Formisano, Ronald P. (2005). "Interpreting Right-Wing or Reactionary Neo-Populism: A Critique". Journal of Policy History 17 (2): 241-255. 

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../f/a/r/Far_right.html"