Does Groupness Breed Extremeness?: National Cultural Influences on Right-Wing Groups in Canada and the United States

• In Event: 30603 - Global and Comparative Approaches to Activism

Abstract

How does national political culture contribute to differences in organizational norms and interpersonal relations within grassroots right-wing groups? Drawing on a year and a half of ethnographic fieldwork and 77 interviews, I found that, despite subscribing to nearly identical ideologies, Canadian and US youth who participate in right-wing organizations behave very differently in group settings. I highlight the need to pay close attention to changes in political culture to determine future right-wing mobilization. First, while Canadian organizations handle disagreements politely, cordially, and without alienating dissenting members, US groups are less tolerant of disagreements with the collective’s ideas and values, and indeed, actively alienate members who diverge from the group consensus. Second, while Canadian right-wing organizations attempt to be tolerant of differences to recruit more members, US groups actively monitor their group members to ensure they fit with the group’s ideological values. Finally, while Canadian participants did not express beliefs in group settings that diverged from what they reported in one-on-one interviews, US participants often reported less extremist ideas in interviews than what they seemed to uphold in group meetings. I argue that the celebration of freedom, individualism and assimilation in the U.S. context, and multiculturalism, diversity, and collectivism in the Canadian, can help explain these differences at the grassroots level.

Author

• Kayla Preston, University of Toronto