1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910523899003321

Autore

Jungkunz Sebastian

Titolo

The Nature and Origins of Political Extremism In Germany and Beyond / / by Sebastian Jungkunz

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2022

ISBN

9783030833367

9783030833350

Edizione

[1st ed. 2022.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (245 pages)

Collana

New Perspectives in German Political Studies, , 2947-6755

Disciplina

943.0879

320.530943

Soggetti

Europe - Politics and government

Identity politics

Elections

Political science

European Politics

Identity Politics

Electoral Politics

Methodology of Political Science

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction -- 2. Definition -- 3. Theory -- 4. Research Design: From Theory to Application -- 5. Measuring Extremist Attitudes -- 6. The Distribution of Extremist Attitudes within German Society -- 7. The Origins of Political Extremism -- 8. Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

This book provides a systematic overview of the prevalence, causes, and stability of left-wing and right-wing extremist attitudes in Germany between 1994 and 2017. It shows that there are many similarities between left-wing and right-wing extremists, both in terms of their ideologies and their individual experiences. Overall, these causes can be traced back to three factors: unmet individual needs (e.g., deprivation or disenchantment with politics), access to ideological narratives that promise simplified solutions to individual problems, and



the larger social circumstances of life (e.g., transformation processes, unemployment, or immigration). Although extremist attitudes are relatively rare, they are also shown to be highly stable: once acquired, individuals are difficult to bring back onto the democratic path. This book is the first to systematically compare left-wing and right-wing extremist attitudes, to provide an intensive methodological contribution to the measurability of such attitudes, and to relate their causes and stability. Sebastian Jungkunz is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Socio-Economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, Post-Doctoral Visiting Fellow at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences, Germany, and project leader at Zeppelin University, Germany. He received his PhD from the University of Bamberg, Germany, and was a visiting scholar at Waseda University, Japan. He is currently working on projects concerning the impact of socio-economic problems on cognitive health and political participation, the development of political attitudes among adolescents, and the measurement and explanation of political and religious extremism.