Right-wing Possibilities

Good Economist aide-memoir this week about comparative Naziism the various possibilities exhibited by the resurgent right-wing parties in different European countries (see also link).  Some takeaways: one, it's certainly not all about economics. The right is doing best perhaps in beleaguered Greece, but also doing well in the thriving Netherlands.  Two: in Hungary, "right-wing" translates into good old-fashioned anti-Semitism,  but elsewhere, right-wing hostility to Muslims can lead to support for Israel.  And three: it is not just disappointed young guys.  France's Marine LePen (surely one of the most talented politicians in the pack) garners strong support among women, notably "women working in routine non-manual profession."  Three, notably absent from the discussion in the Economist is any of the slash-and-burn small-government talk that seems to be dominating (or confusing) the debate in the United States.

There does seem to remain one common thread, though: what the Economist  dubs "ethno-authoritarianism"--"a profoundly nativist resentment towards immigrants and a belief that the state should take more concerted action towards clamping down on foreigners."