De Bromhead, A., Eichengreen, B. and O’Rourke, K., (2012), “Right Wing Political Extremism in the Great Depression”, Discussion Paper no. 95, University of Oxford, February.
The enduring global crisis is giving rise to fears that economic hard times will feed political extremism, as it did in the 1930s. This column suggests that the danger of political polarisation and extremism is greatest in countries with relatively recent histories of democracy, with existing right-wing extremist parties, and with electoral systems that create low hurdles to parliamentary representation of new parties. But above all, it is greatest where depressed economic conditions are allowed to persist.
Relevant Posts
- Bennhold, Katrin, (2012), ‘What History Can Explain About Greek Crisis’, www.nytimes.com, 6 June.
- Eichengreen, B., (2013), “Is Europe out of the woods?”, Project Syndicate, 11 September.
- Interview of Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley, to Dimitris Katsikas, Head of the Crisis Observatory