CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2010
| Author | Reid, Arielle Jeannette |
|---|---|
| Title | Towards an Understanding of Right-wing Extremist Violence |
| Summary | This thesis presents an understanding of rhetorical and actual right-wing extremist violence present in the societies of post-bellum Europe and North America. In defining and focusing on what constitutes right-wing extremism as an ideology, it is possible to glean a clearer purpose to the violence of the extreme right, centred on what is believed and how. The relationship that right-wing extremism has to traditional religions and their extremist manifestations makes it possible to see two related but distinct purposes of right-wing extremist violence: at once, it functions as form of civic activism based on a particular understanding of politics and society; and it is part of a liturgy to a secular ‘deity’. As a form of civic activism, right-wing extremist violence is used to fulfil a defensive and socio-political transformative agenda, focused around a sacralised community. Violence as rite servers to demonstrate loyalty, love and devotion, while protecting the community itself, along with communal and individual modes of identification experienced as central to being. Given that any attempt to understand the violence of the extreme right must accept its intentionality, how right-wing extremists justify and explain the purpose of their violence is an integral part of coming to this or any understanding. As such, right-wing extremist materials, in conjunction with theoretical frameworks laid out by academics, allow for an exploration of the purpose of right with extremist violence that goes beyond seemingly facile explanations of hooliganism, blind hate or irrationality. |
| Supervisor | Bozoki, Andras and Papkova, Irina |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2010/reid_arielle.pdf |
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