Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Political Extremism and Rationality
  • Cited by 15
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
July 2014
Print publication year:
2002
Online ISBN:
9780511550478
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511550478
Subjects:
Economics, Macroeconomics, Political Economy, Politics and International Relations
Information

Book description

Political extremism is widely considered to be the product of irrational behavior. The distinguishing feature of this collection by well-known economists and political scientists from North America, Europe and Australia is to propose a variety of explanations which all insist on the rationality of extremism. Contributors use variants of this approach to shed light on subjects such as the conditions under which democratic parties take extremist positions, the relationship between extremism and conformism, the strategies adopted by revolutionary movements, and the reasons why extremism often leads to violence. The authors identify four core issues in the study of the phenomenon: the nature (definition) of extremism and its origins in both democratic and authoritarian settings, the capacity of democratic political systems to accommodate extremist positions, the strategies (civil disobedience, assassination, lynching) chosen by extremist groups, and the circumstances under which extremism becomes a threat to democracy.

Reviews

Review of the hardback:‘The existence of extremism seems to contradict the idea that participation to political activities is guided by the rational choices of the individuals. This book shows that this is not the case. Extremism may be explained as a rational reaction of the individuals when they face some circumstances such as a ‘social hole’ in thrust between groups and some asymmetry in the distribution of political rents. The original and challenging contributions of this book were conceived with some unintended foresight. Their publication occurs at a time when, once again, a numerous movement of young people faces the choice among more and less extremist policies. Both the members of the anti-globalization movement and the policy makers who want to avoid it taking an extremist direction may benefit from reading this book. Its insights elucidate the specific circumstances under which extremist, but somehow rational, choices may arise.’

Ugo Pagano - University of Siena

Review of the hardback:‘Much of modern political theory, such as the theory of justice developed by John Rawls and his followers, rests on the premise that people are ‘reasonable’. But is this premise reasonable? ‘Extremism’ is a word we use to dismiss views with which we disagree. But, as the authors in this well-argued and compelling volume point out, the concept of extremism can be defined and used as a powerful tool for understanding political conflict. After nailing down extremism’s multiple meanings, the authors then provide a variety of views on its importance. If we are to deal with extremism in the political world views of other people, it is crucial that we understand where extremism comes from, how it works, and how a rational person might also be ‘extreme’.’

Michael Munger - Duke University

Review of the hardback:‘… this book deserves a significant and often innovative contribution to the rapidly growing literature on political extremism.’

Hans-George Betz - University of Geneva

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.