The revival of the far right

Over the last few years, and especially in the West, right-wing parties have had tremendous electoral success. In the United States, it took the Republican Party a mere eight years to take control over the House, the Senate, the Presidency and the judiciary; the same is increasingly true in other Western democracies. In Canada, Australia, and Sweden, conservative politicians have clung to power through anti-immigration and nationalist platforms. In the United Kingdom, Tony Blair’s Labour Party is unpopluar, and it is likely that the Conservaties will win the next election. In Germany, neo-Nazi parties are enjoying a huge resurgence: just this last weekend, the ultra nationalist German National Democratic Party (NPD) secured enough votes to enter parliament in one of Germany’s federal regions, the second time in three years, and confirming fears the neo-Nazis are now an established part of the political landscape, especially in Germany’s depressed former communist east.

This revival of the far right is based in a number of factors, all tied to the declining influence of the West. In the United States, Canada, and Australia — all giant countries born from European conquest of the natives — the “war on terror” is becoming a permanent fixture in the political landscape. The leaders of these three countries — US President Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper, and Australian Prime Minister John Howard — are strongly pro-business, dismissive of climate change, and militant in outlook.

In Europe, stagnant economic growth, the decline of democracy through the advent of the European Union, and the influx of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East, especially Muslim immigrants, are leading to huge gains for far right anti-immigration parties. Europe has had racist tendencies for a long time now — the Algerians in France, South Asians in the UK, and the Turks in Germany are all stereotyped and looked down on in some form or another. Add largescale unemployment and a sense of change caused by the influx of foreigners, and the attraction of far right parties makes perfect sense.

Of course, none of these things are going to change anytime soon. As long as the West stays rich and powerful, people from other more destitute countries will find ways to sneak in and find work so that they can send money back and help out their families. The decline of American influence on the world stage appears to guarantee that both the Democrats and the Republicans will cling to the “war on terror” as a necessary means halting the waining power of the United States, with the Canadians and the Australians following suit.

Politicians are doing their best right now to make the world appear black and white, us or them, rich white Christian versus poor brown heathen; as the world continues to grow more chaotic, with violence spreading through war and terrorism and with the Earth’s fury turning more insistent due to climate change, these types of simple ideologies — where domestic tyranny and international war are offered as the only answers to complicated problems — will prove fatally attractive.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 8:57 am and is filed under Imperial Decline, International Relations, Structure and System, The West. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.