On extremism and democracy in Europe

Summary:

On Extremism and Democracy in Europe is a collection of short and accessible essays on the far right, populism, Euroscepticism, and liberal democracy. It includes both sober, fact-based analysis of the often sensationalized 'rise of the far right' in Europe as well as passionate defence of the fundamental values of liberal democracy. The author argues that the true challenge to liberal democracy comes from the political elites at the centre of the political systems rather than from the political challengers at the political margins. Pushing to go beyond the simplistic opposition of extremism and democracy, which is much clearer in theory than in practice, he accentuates the internal dangers of liberal democracy without ignoring the external threats.

Table of Contents:

Part I: The Far Right
1. The populist radical right: a pathological normalcy
2. Three decades of populist radical right parties in Western Europe: So what?
3. The myth of Weimar Europe
4. Putin’s Trojan Horses? Five theses on Russia and the European far right
5. Local shocks: the far right in the 2014 European elections
6. Europe of Nations and Freedoms: Financial Success, Political Failure
7. Viktor Orbán and the difference between radical right parties and radical right politics

Part II: Populism
8. Jean-Claude Jucker and the populist zeitgeist in European politics
9. Populism: the good, the bad and the ugly
10. Populism and liberal democracy: is Greece the exception or the future of Europe?
11. Populism: a primer

Part III: Euroscepticism
12. European integration: after the fall
13. The European elites' politics of fear
14. What will the European elections bring the Western Balkans?
15. The 2014 European elections in numbers
16. Electoral winners and political losers in the right-wing Eurosceptic camp
17. The key lessons of Syriza’s defeat? A different Europe requires both ideology and competence!
18. It’s time to end the Eurosceptic illusions!
19. 'Weimar Greece' and the future of Europe
20. Portugal faces a political crisis, but it’s the same one facing governments everywhere

Part IV: Liberal Democracy
21. The intolerance of the tolerant
22. After the storms: time to go beyond the obvious responses
23. Norway’s democratic example
24. The do’s and don’ts of banning political extremism
25. No, we are NOT all Charlie (and that’s a problem)
26. What freedom of speech? Of foxes, chickens, and #JeSuisCharlie
27. As Europe looks fearfully outside, its liberal democracy is under attack from within

Epilogue: European democracy after Paris