Continuity and Change in Restricting Right-Wing Extremism: The US and Greece

• In Event: Countering Illiberalism in Liberal Democracies I: Constitutional Perspectives

Abstract

This paper examines continuity and change in how liberal democracies respond to rising threats by extremist right-wing actors. The paper compares the United States and Greece, two cases that are rarely the focus of comparative analysis, despite their importance for understanding how democracies deal with extremism. In both countries, extremist right-wing organizations have been active for decades but were met with relative tolerance by institutional and political actors. For different historical reasons, democratic actors in both countries were similarly uneasy with the “militant” tactic of banning or restricting political organizations. Hence, when these organizations started gaining political traction, democratic agents avoided taking “militant” measures to restrict them. Despite these similar beginnings, recent years witnessed a sharp divergence in how the two countries treated right-wing extremist organizations. After nearly two decades of institutional tolerance, Greek authorities took restrictive measures against one of the most notorious right-wing parties in Europe, the Golden Dawn. By contrast, and even after the attack on the Capitol in January 2021, American institutional actors remain hesitant to undertake measures against strikingly similar organizations. The article compares the policy trajectories of restrictions to right-wing extremism in the two countries, identifying the key mechanisms accounting for continuity and change.

Author

• Antonis A. Ellinas, University of Cyprus