Book Review: Alina Polyakova, The Dark Side of European Integration: Social Foundations and Cultural Determinants of the Rise of Radical Right Movements in Contemporary Europe
| Author | Krzysztof Jaskułowski |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929916672801 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsEurope |
Book Reviews 155
studying) the far right are discussed. The
remainder of the text is divided into two parts.
In Part I, the context and text of the CEU PRR
are analysed and its ideology excavated. In
Part II, the electoral success and wider policy
impact of the PRR are assessed through quali-
tative text analysis and expert surveys. These
methods are problematic, and as a result,
Pirro’s arguments lack robustness. In particu-
lar, his non-statistical causal account of why
the CEU PRR succeeds or fails in chapter 5 is
unconvincing.
That said, this exploratory study presents
some important new insights. For instance, it is
demonstrated that CEU PRR parties have
moved away from a ‘Euroreject’ position to
‘Eurosceptic’ – an intriguing finding given the
increasingly anti-EU rhetoric of Western PRR
parties. It is also argued that nativism finds its
expression not in anti-immigrant xenophobia
(the enemy ‘beyond the state’) but rather in
anti-minority discrimination (those individuals
who are ‘of the state but not of the nation’).
While interesting, this argument perhaps shows
the primary concern with any book that seeks
to describe contemporary phenomena: the phe-
nomenon itself might change.
The immigration crisis in Western Europe
since 2015 has both altered the salience of
immigration and changed the parties’ attitudes
towards immigrants. Although this renders
some of Pirro’s insights defunct, it does also,
paradoxically, support his primary claim that
the CEU parties analysed should be considered
part of the PRR party family. Overall, this is a
well-written and interesting book that has
made an important step forward in scholarship
on the PRR.
Bertie Vidgen
(University of Oxford)
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929916672800
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The Dark Side of European Integration:
Social Foundations and Cultural
Determinants of the Rise of Radical Right
Movements in Contemporary Europe by
Alina Polyakova. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2015.
180pp., £22.90 (p/b), ISBN 9783838207667
The book discusses the development of radical
right-wing movements across European socie-
ties. Drawing on Karl Polanyi’s theory, the
author regards radical right-wing movements
as the counter-movement against the European
Union’s neoliberal economic policies. The
book attempts to analyse the mechanism of
nationalist resistance at the macro- and micro-
social level. It consists of four chapters and fol-
lows a thematic structure: each of the four
chapters addresses a different aspect of nation-
alist mobilisation.
Alongside the introductory chapter, the
book contains two empirical chapters which
discuss electoral support for radical right-wing
parties in Western and Eastern Europe, respec-
tively, and present a case study of the micro-
processes of ethnic nationalist mobilisation in
Ukraine. The case study is particularly interest-
ing because, unlike most analyses of extreme
right parties, it relies on qualitative methods
and focuses not on ideology or organisational
structure but on the daily activities of ethnic
nationalists. Drawing on over 100 interviews,
Alina Polyakova explains in detail how radical
nationalists recruit new members and mobilise
support. For example, in contrast to communis
opinio, the author shows that nationalist beliefs
do not precede joining radical movements, but
rather radical ideas result from interactions
with other activists. Having been recruited to
the movement by friends and colleagues, indi-
viduals are ‘radicalized through the process of
mobilization’ (p. 152). The last chapter is more
theoretical and argues for rethinking the rela-
tionship between political science and the soci-
ology of social movements.
The book is clearly argued and is written in
easily accessible language, for the most part
avoiding unnecessary jargon. It presents many
interesting insights into ethnic politics in
Europe. However, it is not without limitations,
of which three stand out in particular. First, the
geographical scope of the book is not clear (to
this reviewer). The book focuses on the contra-
dictions of European integration; however, one
of its chapters focuses on Ukraine which does
not belong to the EU. Second, and more impor-
tantly, the main thesis of the book that economic
integration is producing cultural disintegration
in the form of ethnic nationalism seems to be too
vague and general. The question of the causal
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