Despite the democratic waves of the past decades, the 20th century was at least as much a century of political extremism. Even today, liberal democracy is increasingly challenged within its traditional heartlands of North America and Western Europe. This Major Work will bring together key papers on political extremism and radicalism, focussing predominantly upon extremism and radicalism within (liberal) democratic contexts, but also moving beyond this by including both (particularly historic) studies of the main extremist regimes and articles of the 20th century.

Curated by a leading voice in the field, the articles are mapped and set in context by the introductory chapters which open each of the work's four volumes. Each volume focuses on a key area in the topic:

Volume One: Extremism and Democracy: Concept, Theories and Responses

Volume Two: Historical Extremism

Volume Three: Right-Wing Extremism

Volume Four: Left-Wing Extremism

VOLUME ONE: EXTREMISM AND DEMOCRACY: CONCEPT, THEORIES AND RESPONSES
PART ONE: CONCEPTS
Meaning and Forms of Political Present in Past and Present - Uwe Backes
The Crippled Epistemology of Extremism - Russell Hardin
The Problem of Extremism - Ronald Wintrobe
PART TWO: THEORIES
Mass Society and Extremist Politics - Joseph Gusfield
Fascism - Seymour Martin Lipset
Left, Right and Center
Political Extremism - Robert Smith
Left, Center and Right
Pathways to Extremism - Manus Midlarsky
Extremist Parties and Political Turmoil - G. Bingham Powell Jr.
Two Puzzles
Status Consistency and Right-Wing Extremism - Gary Rush
Ten Theories of the Extreme Right - Roger Eatwell
The Populist Radical Right - Cas Mudde
A Pathological Normalcy
PART THREE: RESPONSES
Electoral Regimes and the Proscription of Anti-Democratic Parties - John Finn
Free Speech and Political Extremism - Carl Cohen
How Nasty Are We Free to Be?
Defending Democracy - Stefan Rummens and Koen Abts
The Concentric Containment of Political Extremism
VOLUME TWO: HISTORICAL EXTREMISM
PART ONE: TOTALITARIANISM
The Totalitarian Movement - Hannah Arendt
The General Characteristics of Totalitarian Dictatorship - Carl Joachim Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski
Towards a Comparative Politics of Movement-Regimes - Robert Tucker
PART TWO: FASCISM AND NAZISM
Introduction - Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznayder and Maia Asheri
Fascism as an Alternative Political Culture
Comparing Fascist Movements - Peter Merkl
Political Space and Fascism as a Late-Comer - Juan Linz
Conditions Conducive to the Success or Failure of Fascism as a Mass Movement in Inter-War Europe
Towards a New Model of Generic Fascism - Roger Eatwell
Who, Indeed, Did Vote for Hitler? - Thomas Childers
Fascism, National Socialism and Conservatives in Europe, 1914-1945 - Carl Levy
Issues for Comparativists
PART THREE: COMMUNISM
Did the Russian Revolution Have to Happen? - Richard Pipes
The Antecedent and Prototypes of the System - János Kornai
Was Stalin Really Necessary? - Alec Nove
The Stalinist Experience in Eastern Europe - George Schöpflin
The Comparative Study of Communist Political Systems - Alfred Meyer
Soviet Neo-Traditionalism - Ken Jowitt
The Political Corruption of a Leninist Regime
What Was Communism? A Retrospective in Comparative Analysis - Andrew Janos
VOLUME THREE: RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM
PART ONE: POST-WAR EXTREME RIGHT POLITICAL ACTORS
Caught in Its Own Net - Roger Griffin
Post-War Fascism outside Europe
¿Classic¿ Fascism and the New Radical Right in Western Europe - Diethelm Prowe
Comparisons and Contrasts
The Radical Right - Seymour Martin Lipset
A Problem for American Democracy?
Right-Wing Extremism in Post-War Europe - Klaus von Beyme
Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe - Cas Mudde
The Ideological Shift on the Russian Radical Right - Mariène Laruelle
From Demonizing the West to Fear of Migrants
Conservative and Right-Wing Movements - Kathleen Blee and Kimberly Creasap
PART TWO: EXPLANATIONS
The Silent Counter-Revolution - Piero Ignazi
Hypotheses on the Emergence of Extreme Right-Wing Parties in Europe
The Contemporary Radical Right - Herbert Kitschelt (in collaboration with A.J. McGann)
An Interpretative and Explanatory Framework
Is Extreme Right-Wing Populism Contagious? Explaining the Emergence of a New Party Family - Jens Rydgren
Explaining the Rise of Racist and Extreme Right Violence in Western Europe - Ruud Koopmans
Grievances or Opportunities?
Electoral Sociology - Kai Arzheimer
Who Votes for the Extreme Right and Why - and When?
The Sociology of the Radical Right - Jens Rydgren
The Radical Right in Post-Socialist Central and Eastern Europe - Michael Minkenberg
Comparative Observations and Interpretations
PART THREE: CONSEQUENCES
Against the System - Hans-Georg Betz
Radical Right-Wing Populism¿s Challenge to Liberal Democracy
Reacting to the Radical Right - David Art
Lessons from Germany and Austria
The Defending Democracy and the Extreme Right - Ami Pedahzur
A Comparative Analysis
Three Decades of Populist Radical Right Parties in Western Europe - Cas Mudde
So What?
VOLUME FOUR: LEFT-WING EXTREMISM
PART ONE: RADICAL LEFT PARTIES IN EUROPE
What¿s Left of the Radical Left? The European Radical Left since 1989 - Luke March and Cas Mudde
Decline and Mutation
¿Conclusion¿ from Communist and Post-Communist Parties in Europe - Uwe Backes and Patrick Moreau
¿Introduction¿ from Radical Left Parties in Europe - Luke March
Comparative Perspectives on Communist Successor Parties in Central-Eastern Europe and Eurasia - Taras Kuzio
The Radical Left in Coalition Government - Richard Dunphy and Tim Bale
Towards a Comparative Measurement of Success and Failure
Out of Left Field? Explaining the Variable Electoral Success of European Radical Left Parties - Luke March and Charlotte Rommerskirchen
PART TWO: LEFT POPULIST PARTIES IN LATIN AMERICA
The Resurgence of Radical Populism in Latin America - Carlos de la Torre
Latin Americäs Populist Revival - Kenneth Roberts
Populism and Democracy in Latin America - Francisco Panizza and Romino Miorelli
PART THREE: EXTREME LEFT SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
From Seattle to Porto Alegre - José Seoane and Emilio Taddei
The Anti-Neo-Liberal Globalization Movement
¿This Is What Democracy Looks Like¿ - José Pedro Zuquete
Is Representation under Siege?
Why Does Occupy Matter? - Jenny Pickerill and John Krinsky
The Occupy Movement - Jacquelien Van Stekelenburg
Product of This Time
Religion, Violence and Radical Environmentalism - Taylor Bron
From Earth First! To the Unabomber to the Earth Liberation Front