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Title: A societal shift to the right or the political mobilisation of a shrinking minority? Explaining rise and radicalisation of the AfD in Germany

Authors: Floris Biskamp

Addresses: Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen, Institute of Political Science, Melanchtonstr 36, 72074 Tübingen, Germany

Abstract: This paper discusses whether the swift rise and radicalisation of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the first electorally successful far-right party in Germany in decades was caused by a general societal shift to the right. It first operationalises the concept of a shift towards the (far) right with references to Norberto Bobbio and Cas Mudde. Then it discusses whether such a shift has taken place on four levels: public policy, political behaviour, individual attitudes, and public discourse. The picture is heterogeneous but offers no compelling evidence for a societal shift to the right. As an alternative explanation, the paper argues that the rise and radicalisation of the AfD should rather be understood as the formation of a far-right project in reaction to an ambivalent process of liberalisation - a process of liberalisation that can itself be endangered by this far-right formation.

Keywords: far right; Alternative for Germany; Alternative für Deuschland; AfD; populist radical right; extreme right; right-wing extremism; German politics; normalisation; mainstreaming of far-right parties.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPP.2024.138373

International Journal of Public Policy, 2024 Vol.17 No.3, pp.139 - 165

Received: 12 May 2023
Accepted: 03 Oct 2023
Published online: 01 May 2024 *