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From Extremism to Terrorism: The Radicalisation of the Far Right in Italy and West Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2018

TOBIAS HOF
TOBIAS HOF*
Affiliation:
Tobias Hof, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box #3195, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3195, U.S.A.; hof@unc.edu
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Abstract

Since the 1960s in Italy and Germany the notion has prevailed that ‘the state’ has given support to right-wing terrorism. This article challenges such views by examining the internal dynamics of right-wing terrorism in both countries with reference to Ehud Sprinzak's theory of ‘split delegitimisation’. To explain the different scale of Italian and West German terrorism one must analyse personnel continuities, the nature of the perceived ‘communist threat’, as well as the national political culture. Thus, without neglecting state support for the far right, this article emphasises how the internal dynamics of terrorist groups respond to political and social frameworks. Only if we acknowledge that right-wing terrorist groups possess their own agency can we fully understand their development. This is even more urgent in a time when – once again – the far right is on the rise in Europe.

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Article
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Contemporary European History , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , August 2018 , pp. 412 - 431
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

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