The Extreme Right in Britain
analytical Essay
2598 words
The Extreme Right in Britain
Introduction
Perhaps, one of the highly debated issues in the electoral procedures of different European nations is about the extreme right. Based on the premise that the nation is the primary unit of social and political organization, extremist nationalism has been revived since the demise of communism. Unlike civic nationalism, which stresses equality and solidarity, the exaggerated, chauvinistic, and aggressive nationalism of the extreme right upholds the significance of the nation and national identity against any other value. Each person is defined by membership in ancient ethnic and cultural groups that are hierarchically arranged according to the "natural order." In the extreme rights’ view, violating this natural order through racial combination leads to corruption in society.
Consequently, the extreme right portrays itself as the defender of the nation, protecting society's integrity and purity from the onslaught of foreigners and unwanted change. Therefore, national identity subordinates all other identifications; it divides good from evil and friend from enemy. It is a source of pride that right-wing extremists feel has been denied them by the state and liberals.
The resurgence of extreme right parties gained its first sudden and dramatic momentum when the Front National (FN), led by Jean-Marie LePen, scored 11.2 percent in the 1984 European elections. This took many by surprise, including political and social scientists, most of whom at the time had expected rightist extremism to disperse altogether. Indeed, until the mid-1980s, the organized extreme right remained completely marginalized in Europe, enjoyed little political support, and performed poorly in elections.
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In this essay, the author
- Explains that the united kingdom independence party (ukip) is one of the extreme right parties which aim at the withdrawal of british from european union.
- Explains that each extreme party in britain has been able to provide an objective which is beneficial for great britain as a whole. however, there are some factors that affect the overall performance of each extrem right party which also lead to failure in electoral terms.
- Analyzes how the extreme right has been revived since the demise of communism, based on the premise that the nation is the primary unit of social and political organization
- Explains that the rise of the extreme right in britain has had a modest effect on society and policy.
- Explains that the british national party (bnp) was founded by john tyndall in 1982, with racism as its fundamental ideology.
- Explains that the extreme right parties in great britain have been beleaguered by internal territory wars among their leaders and the electoral laws of the british have crippled their efforts to receive votes.
- Cites braun, a., scheinberg, s. and eatwell, r. extreme right and british exceptionalist.
- Presents margetts, h. john, p. weir, s. latent support for the far-right in british politics: the bp and ukip in the 2004 european and london elections.
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- Far Right Extremism in Western Europeanalytical essayThere is considerable evidence to suggest that Western Europe has experienced an upsurge of far-right extremism such as Front nationale in France, Vlaams Belang in Belgium, the Danish Peoples Party in Denmark and the British National Party in the UK. Consequently, they often advocate nationalistic traits (e.g. Almeida, 2012, p137) as part of their ideology and reinforce this through the manipulation of racial discrimination whereby they create the ‘other’ in society for them to attack for their failings as a country. It has been argued elsewhere (Fennema, 1997; Van der Brug, Fennema and Tillie, 2005) that such parties would be better off branded as ‘anti-immigration’ because of their common approach on blaming the ‘other.’ In particular, the British National Party (BNP) claims to pursuit white supremacy as opposed to multiculturalism as evidently outlined in their 2010 manifesto. Research shows that BNP’s rise in electoral votes to 1.9% in 2010 has become significant in British politics which could initiate a danger towards the British citizens. This is a topic that is currently the subject of much research and debate around Europe, where in many countries there has been majority support for far-right extremists. So why do people vote for and support these parties? Is it simply a reaction to immigration or an expression of deep-seated racial prejudice? I examine the support for the British National Party as to why people may have positive feelings towards the BNP by using UK data to test the phenomenon which Western Europe would probably agree as compelling evidence that racist affiliation to be the main explanation of maintaining British sovereignty.
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- Argues that western europe has experienced an upsurge of far-right extremism such as front nationale, vlaams belang, the danish peoples party, and the british national party.
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- Analyzes how tyndale's neo-nazi actions resulted in a prison sentence for such crude language. the internal security group c18 was enforced from the famous ‘rights for whites’ campaign.
- Explains bnp's core practise is employing racial inequality where they can use ethnic minorities as a tool in order to gain votes.
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- Explains how different authors in different times have defined ideology. they combine the most thoughtful and influential definitions that circulated within the social sciences in the postwar decades.
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In this essay, the author
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- Explains that nationalism feeds narcissism and egocentrism. it ties in to simplistic thinking of "good" and "bad" along with fascist beliefs and ideals.
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- Argues that nationalism is harmful because it encourages simplistic thinking, feeds narcissism and egocentrism, breeds prejudice and hate, and ultimately leads to separation rather than unification.
1477 wordsRead More - Ideologyanalytical essayIdeology has played an important part in British politics for centuries. It played a part in the setting up of the three major parties as we know them today. Ideology is difficult to define as it is such as widely and loosely used term. Andrew Vincent as well as many other authors, Vincent describes ideology as, ‘the term ’ideology’ was a neologism compounded from the Greek terms eidos and logos. It can be defined as a ‘science of ideas’ (Vincent: 2009:p.1). Even from this definition it is difficult to fully understand the term ‘ideology’ as it has such a broad definition. The changing nature of British politics in the post-war era contributed to the level of importance that ideology had during this period. The post-war period became none as an era of consensus politics, the post-war consensus has been described by David Marsh as, ‘a distinct policy paradigm which shaped the strategic choices of Britain's leading political actors as they sought to build and then to preserve a 'New Jerusalem' from the damage created by the war’ (Marsh: 1999:p.67) this so called post-war consensus definitely played a part in the removal of ideology from British politics. Although the post-war consensus did remove the importance of ideology in British politics, there were periods within the post-war consensus where new ideologies emerged. Ideology was important in Clement Attlee’s government, which had a socialist policy agenda through the creation of the NHS and the advancement of the welfare state, in the 1980’s through the emergence of Thatcherism, as well as the creation of ‘New Labour’ in 1997 and even the current government can be seen as ideological. This essay will first look at the important role that ideology does have to play, and has play...
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how ideology played an important role in british politics in the post-war era.
- Analyzes how ideology was important in clement attlee's labour government, which had an ideological agenda.
- Argues that margaret thatcher's ideology was a neo-liberal adaptation to work in modern day politics.
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- Opines that ideology has been important in british politics in the post-war era due to the ambiguity of the term. both the labour and conservative parties accepted the ideology of social democracy.
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- Argues that nationalism is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is harmful for the nations if it's understood properly.
- Analyzes michael barone's use of sports nationalism to support his argument. he points out that insightful individuals can appreciate the expertise of other countries while favoring their own.
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- Concludes that mixed up the concept of patriotism and nationalism to reach to the fallacious conclusion that nationalalism is not always bad.
1035 wordsRead More