Radicalized Mainstream: Mobilizing, normalizing and normativizing far-right ideologies from the centre

This lecture discusses the relationship between the radicalized margins and the mainstream. Radicalized actors/ideologies and the mainstream are usually considered opposing poles. The mainstream is often portrayed as moderate and centrist in terms of its convictions and policies and placed in opposition to the far-right and far-left. In this lecture,recent insights on the “normalization” of far right actors and attitudes (Ruth Wodak, Cas Mudde) are presented, paying particular attention to “the mainstream” as a (heterogeneous) agent accommodating, aligning, justifying, and normalizing far-right actors, actions, and attitudes, as well as the reasons why and the circumstances under which this happens.