Radical Right in Switzerland

Damir Skenderovic is Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Fribourg. Previously, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European Studies at New York University. His recent publications focus on the radical right, identity politics, migration, and 1968 in Western Europe, with a particular emphasis on Switzerland.

“Skenderovic has nevertheless produced a tremendously informative study, convincingly showing that Switzerland deserves a place in comparative studies of European right-wing politics. scholars will find his detailed descriptions of the diverse players on the Swiss radical right very helpful, and the book offers an excellent foundation for further research.” • German Studies Review“…an exemplary analysis of the development of the radical Right within a national framework… The study impresses also beyond its valuable substantive results with its structure, its familiarity with  contemporary developments and personalities but also its empirical basis. One wishes that comparable analyses were available for more European societies.” • Swiss Political Science Review“This is a necessary and illuminating book which puts Switzerland into a comparative perspective and conveys new and groundbreaking insights in a hitherto underdeveloped research field… I hope that Skenderovic's brilliantly written and persuasively argued book will have a deep impact on the historiography and the political analysis of Switzerland.” • Prof. Dr. Jakob Tanner, Professor of History at Zurich University“The Swiss case has been largely ignored in the large Anglophone academic literature which has appeared on the radical right. [This] meticulous and wide-ranging study… more than fills this gap… It is a 'must read' for those interested in both the radical right and the demise of Swiss political consensus.” • Roger Eatwell, Professor of Comparative European Politics & Dean of Faculty, University of Bath“This book is an intellectual tour de force, an important achievement, and a real breakthrough in the study of Swiss politics. It argues forcefully that Switzerland should be analyzed as part of Europe. It places the development of the Swiss radical right in a comparative framework that nevertheless emphasizes the dynamics of Swiss politics that have supported its emergence. Skenderovic also argues that the radical right has moved Swiss politics into a more contentious mode, an important change for the Swiss system, but one that has brought the political system closer to those of the rest of Europe.” • Martin A. Schain, Professor of Politics at New York University“With this important book, Damir Skenderovic deconstructs the myth of Swiss exceptionalism, as far as the European radical right is concerned. More importantly, his thorough analysis of the various ideological and organizational faces of the Swiss radical right underscores the importance to expand the usual focus of party and electoral research, by including non-party phenomena, such as sub-cultural milieus and far right media, and their interaction with parties and voters. The book demonstrates that the contemporary Swiss radical right was not just the beneficiary of favorable circumstances, but that it was heavily involved in bringing these circumstances about. With such a nuanced and actor-oriented approach, the book sets new standards for future single-country as well as comparative case studies of the radical right”. • Michael Minkenberg Max Weber Chair for German and European Studies at New York University“This book is a very rich and important contribution to radical right studies, in which Skenderovic convincingly demonstrates the relevance of agency in the success story of Switzerland’s radical right over time.” • Acta Politica

• List of FiguresList of TablesAbbreviationsIntroductionRecent Challenges in Swiss Politics and SocietyThe Swiss Radical Right:Underrated in Academic ResearchAn Actor-oriented ApproachMain Arguments and Structure of the BookAcknowledgmentsChapter 1. The Concept of the Radical RightDistinctions and BoundariesThe Ideology and Politics of ExclusionismA Political Family and a Collective ActorChapter 2. Success Conditions and Organisational Variation in SwitzerlandNational Traditions: The Front Movement in the 1930sSocial Changes and the Support for the Radical RightThe Openness of the Swiss Political SystemNational Identity, Swiss Exceptionalism and Fears of ‘Overforeignization’The Political Family of the Radical Right in SwitzerlandChapter 3. An Early Precursor: The Movement against Overforeignization in the 1960s and 1970sA Divided Movement of Fringe PartiesThe Power of Direct DemocracyPopulist Strategy and Exclusionist IdeologyChapter 4. Outsiders in the Party System: Fringe Parties in the 1980s and 1990sThe Swiss Democrats: Survivors of the Movement against OverforeignizationThe Swiss Democratic Union: A Fundamentalist Party and its Exclusionist WorldviewThe Car Party/Freedom Party: Rise and Fall of a New Radical Right-wing Populist PartyThe Lega dei Ticinesi: A Regionalist, Anti-establishment PartyChapter 5. Entering the Mainstream: The Emergence of the New SVP in the 1990sThe Old SVP: The History of a Right-wing, Mainstream PartyTowards the New SVP: The Process of Structural TransformationThe Extraordinary Electoral Rise of the New SVPPolitical and Ideological RadicalisationReasons for the Success of the New SVPChapter 6. A Supplier of Ideology: The New Right in the German-speaking Part of SwitzerlandThe Neoconservatives: Renewing Conservatism and Approaching the New RightThe Ecologists: A Right-wing Version of EnvironmentalismThe Neo-nationalists: For the Defence of Swiss ExceptionalismChapter 7. An Intellectual Elite: The New Right in the French-speaking Part of SwitzerlandThe Counter-revolutionaries: Contesting Pluralistic and Parliamentarian DemocracyThe Integrists: Catholicism and PoliticsThe Nouvelle Droite: Importing the French LegacyChapter 8. At the Margins of Society and Politics: The Subculture of the Extreme RightIdeologues and Propagandists: Disseminating Thought and IdeasCombative and Violent Groups: Emergence and Consolidation since the Mid 1980sBetween Distance and Proximity: Linkages with Political PartiesConclusionsThe Process of NormalisationThe Radical Right as a Collective Actor: Linkages and CollaborationsThe Radical Right as a Political Family: Ideology and Intellectual AgendaThe 1990s and BeyondReferencesNotesIndex