Does crisis produce the rise of the extreme right? Systemic breakdown, Nationalism and Varieties of support.

This paper examines the circumstances under which economic crisis is likely to be associated with the rise of extreme right-wing parties. We may identify two patterns of extreme right-wing party support among the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) countries with the onset of the economic crisis: dramatic increase in Greece versus no increase in the other countries. Why have similar crisis conditions led to dissimilar patterns of extreme right-wing party support? This article addresses this variation through a controlled comparison of the PIGS countries. We compare four cases, which are facing similar crisis conditions and have all received financial bailouts, but are exhibiting a variation in the dependent variable. We argue that the rise of extreme right-wing parties under conditions of crisis is likely when there is a simultaneous presence of two necessary and sufficient conditions: (a) systemic breakdown, which explains the potential for any fringe party to increase its support; and (b) nationalism and the extent to which national values are consistent with the ideology of extreme right-wing parties which explains the rise of right-wing parties as opposed to any other extreme, fringe or small party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]