Political Extremism and Rationality

Review of the hardback: 'The existence of extremism seems to contradict the idea that participation to political activities is guided by the rational choices of the individuals. This book shows that this is not the case. Extremism may be explained as a rational reaction of the individuals when they face some circumstances such as a 'social hole' in thrust between groups and some asymmetry in the distribution of political rents. The original and challenging contributions of this book were conceived with some unintended foresight. Their publication occurs at a time when, once again, a numerous movement of young people faces the choice among more and less extremist policies. Both the members of the anti-globalization movement and the policy makers who want to avoid it taking an extremist direction may benefit from reading this book. Its insights elucidate the specific circumstances under which extremist, but somehow rational, choices may arise.' Ugo Pagano, University of Siena

• List of figures and tables; Introduction Albert Breton, Gianluigi Galeotti, Pierre Salmon, and Ronald Wintrobe; Part I. Extremism and Rationality: 1. The crippled epistemology of extremism Russell Hardin; 2. Leadership and passion in extremist politics Ronald Wintrobe; 3. Information control, loss of autonomy, and the emergence of political extremism Albert Breton and Silvana Dalmazzone; Part II. Extremism in Constitutional Democracies: 4. Extremism and monomania Pierre Salmon; 5. Some democratic propensities for extreme results Geoffrey Brennan; 6. Strategic positioning and campaigning Amihai Glazer; 7. At the outskirts of the constitution Gianluigi Galeotti; 8. Is democracy an antidote to extremism? Harold Hochman; Part III. Extremism in Non-Democratic Settings: 9. The political life cycle of extremist organizations Mario Ferrero; 10. Rationally violent tactics: evidence from modern Islamic fundamentalism Luisa Giurato and Maria Cristina Molinari; 11. De Bello Omniumi Contra Omnesj Guido Ortona; Index.