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On the hollowness of the contemporary radical populist right and what to do about it

For decades, radical right-wing populism has been accompanied by a narrative warning of the fundamental threat these parties pose to liberal democracy. The effect has been close to zero.

By Hans-Georg Betz
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Matteo Salvini in Afragola, Italy, 18 January 2019. Esposito Salvatore/Press Association. All rights reserved.

Populism is all the rage these days, particularly in Europe. Or, to put it more concretely, the lethal threat radical right-wing populism allegedly poses to liberal democracy. Authors who are usually quick (and justifiedly so) to zero in on the populist right's paranoid, conspiratorial take on the world, are equally quick to resort to hyperbole and hysteria, for instance by drawing parallels between today and the 1930s.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0