Extreme Makeover: How did the far right get so mainstream?

• Author: Schaeffer, Carol
• Position: The Far Right Today - Book review

The Far Right Today

by Cas Mudde

Polity, 160 pp.

It is a familiar headline: The global far right is on the rise. Far-right victories dominate news cycles as authoritarian leaders are elected on promises to bring about a mythical return to order, disregarding values like "inclusivity," "human rights," and "liberal democracy." In the last year, far-right leaders gained new wins across the globe, including in Brazil (with the ascent of Jair Bolsonaro) and in India (with the reelection of Narendra Modi). For those concerned that history's darkest hours may repeat themselves, it's looking pretty bleak.

Few people are more qualified to explain what's happening than Cas Mudde, a Dutch political scientist and Guardian columnist who has been researching far-right extremism and populism since the 1980s. His new book, The Far Right Today, aims to compare today's far-right movements with those of past decades, beginning with the end of the Second World War. He does so by breaking the history of the far right into four "waves." The first, from 1945 to roughly the mid-1950s, was marginal and preoccupied with nostalgia for prewar fascism. The second wave was a revolt against trends like urbanization and the development of the welfare state. The third wave is defined by the successful electoral rise of radical right parties, like France's National Front.

Mudde's central thesis is that a fourth wave of the far right is currently underway. He argues that the newest wave is distinguished by the fact that it's gone mainstream. He traces the wave to what he sees as the three defining crises of the twenty-first century: global terrorism, from 9/11 onward; the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent worldwide recession; and the 2015 refugee crisis. In the wake of these events, he writes, "mainstream right, and sometimes even left, parties" are increasingly willing to share a bed with far-right figures.

The greatest value of Mudde's book is its scope. The fourth wave of the far right, he says, is defined by its heterogeneity: There is no one "far right" but rather intersecting parties, movements, and individuals with shared qualities and aims. As Mudde observes, the extent of the far right's political rise goes far beyond specific national or even regional borders. Some examples are well trodden in news cycles, like Brexit and Victor Orban's Hungary. But Mudde also mentions countries like Japan and Australia to illustrate that no nation or region is immune...