Mainstreaming Extremism: Drivers and Consequences of Far-Right Protest in a Polarized World

As the contemporary far right has moved from the margins to the mainstream, nativist protest acquired growing relevance on a global scale. This shift is characterized by two key trends. First, there is a growing intertwining between electoral mobilization and street protest in far-right politics, exemplified by events like the storming of the US Capitol in January 2021, and the Brazilian Congress attack two years later. The rise of far-right political actors thus often underscores a larger project of civil society transformation, whereby societal polarization around minority rights and civil liberties accompanies the erosion of established democratic norms and processes. Second, far-right activism has expanded its focus beyond traditional issues like anti-immigration and Islamophobia, developing into a global phenomenon whereby similar tactics narratives, and targets, are often shared across national boundaries. This transnational dimension is most evident in the ‘culture wars’ waged by these movements against LGBTQ+ rights across contexts such as France, Poland, Georgia, and Brazil, or the campaigns targeting academic institutions and scientific knowledge in the Netherlands, Turkey or Japan. The COVID-19 pandemic further catalysed regressive action, with particularly significant anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine movements in the US, Canada, and several EU countries. These developments show that far-right mobilisation, today, constitutes a truly global phenomenon, with local and national campaigns extending across borders and contexts. Given these developments, studying the drivers, dynamics and consequences of far-right protest mobilization is of utmost societal and scientific urgency. This panel brings together established and early-career scholars working on far-right protest dynamics in Europe and beyond. It aims to empirically assess the way far-right actors mobilize to transform civil society. The panel addresses three key aspects: 1) The root causes of far-right protest mobilization, exploring macro-, meso- and micro-level drivers; 2) The mechanisms sustaining far-right street activism, notably the interplay between protest and electoral politics; 3) The outcomes of far-right protest in terms of public opinion change, agenda setting and public policy. The panel features contributions from diverse methodological and theoretical perspectives, with a comparative focus on Europe and other regions of the world.