The Extreme Right, Violence and Other Action Repertoires: An Empirical Study on Two European Countries

Despite the growing scientific interest in extreme right mobilisation, empirical studies on the various forms of protest used by these groups are still scarce, with few attempts to consider, and integrate for explanation, the context of both external (structural) and internal (organisational) factors that might affect them. In this article, focusing on different types of extreme-right organisations (both political parties and non-party groups) in Italy and Spain, the use of violence and other different forms of action will be investigated and linked to the political opportunities of the context and organisational resources. With a view on the actors' symbolic construction of reality, the ways in which macro-level characteristics (e.g., state repression and provisions, social support, etc) and meso-level features and dynamics of the organisations influence their action repertoire will be explored. This will be achieved by combining qualitative and quantitative data from 20 semi-structured interviews with extreme right leaders with a protest event analysis on their most recent mobilisation in the two countries (2005–2009). The main differences and similarities among organisations and countries will be demonstrated. (author's abstract)