Subjects:
20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000
Religion & beliefs
The authors of the volume deal with the precipitation of political ideologies in the discourses, visions, programs and propaganda efforts of extremist organizations. The contributors differentiate between the characteristic differences and similarities between right and left extremisms, but also use political-religious fundamentalism as an object of comparison. Despite a plurality of perspectives, all authors have one definition of extremism in common, which is derived from the negation of democracy. In this way, "soft" forms of extremism come into focus, which have similarities with "hard" extremism without fulfilling all of its characteristics.
Professor Dr Uwe Backes is deputy director of the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism and teaches at the TU Dresden.
Dr. Eckhard Jesse ist Professor fÃ"r Politikwissenschaft an der Technischen Universität Chemnitz.