The Alternative For Germany Afd Analysis Of A New Right Wing Populism

Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Communications - Media and Politics, Politic Communications, grade: 1,7, Malmö University, language: English, abstract: The aim of this work is to examine how the political communication of the recently created German political party "Alternative for Germany" (Alternative für Deutschland) can be understood as a form of right-wing populist discourse. The analysis seeks to gain knowledge in how their discourses challenge the established ones in Germany. The discourses of the AfD are then examined in their wider context in a discussion about their social implications in Germany and Europe. The study design is devised following Norman Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis, which acts both as an analytical and methodological framework. Under a social constructionist paradigm, the corpus of selected political messages is analysed using a methodological toolbox that is based on Fairclough’s work and looks after three levels of analysis: text, discursive practice and sociocultural practice. This framework is enhanced with the findings and theoretical considerations of Ruth Wodak’s work on right-wing populist discourses. While the first two levels follow a constricted methodological guideline in order to examine how the AfD discourses can be understood as right wing-populism and how they challenge established discourses, the last level opens a discussion about how they draw upon and reproduce broader ideological-discursive formations and social practices.

Zusammenfassung: This book traces the rise of the far right AfD from its inception in 2013 to its re-election to the Bundestag in 2021, emphasizing the party's nature as a "populist issue entrepreneur" and covering the three major crises that have shaken European party politics - the Eurozone crisis, the so-called refugee crisis, and the COVID pandemic. Currently, books on the topic of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) are largely limited to historical treatments and surface level analyses of the political party. This volume has the virtue of being both empirically rigorous as well as conceptually nuanced: it seeks to understand the party's political trajectory and attraction to supporters by analyzing its voters using advanced quantitative methodologies, as well as interpreting the party's communication strategies through mixed empirical methods. It embeds this account within a theoretically well-grounded argument. The argument emphasizes three important explanatory conditions - a favorable political opportunity structure, issue entrepreneurship, and the party's stages of political development. Michael A. Hansen is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Turku, Finland. He previously held a Postdoctoral position at Lund University and was an Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin Parkside. Jonathan Olsen is Professor and Chair, Department of Social Sciences and Historical Studies at Texas Woman's University, USA

Master's Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, Warsaw University, language: English, abstract: This study sheds light upon the phenomenon of populism by comparing the parties Alternative for Germany and Law and Justice regarding a common populist spirit. While the manifold understandings of populism and its origins are expounded, the study applies the ideological approach of populism to further conduct a research upon the right-wing populist character of both parties. However, both parties are not right-wing populist parties in their very fundament but underwent a transformation into such through two populist moments. Applying a binominal logistic regression reveals populist determinants of voting behavior for each party, and thus, their ideological core. While a fer-tile breeding ground for right-wing populist attitudes is given after the respective first populist moment of each party, it can be shown as well that such attitudes have not been decisively influencing voting decision at that time.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of radical right populism in Germany. It gives an overview of historical developments of the phenomenon and its current appearance. It examines three of the main far-right organizations in Germany: the radical right populist party AfD (Alternative for Germany), Pegida (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamification of the Occident), and the Identitarian Movement. The book investigates the positions of these groups as expressed in programmes, publications, and statements of party leaders and movement activists. It explores their history, ideologies, strategies, and their main activists and representatives, as well as the overlap between the groups. The ideological positions examined include populism, nativism, authoritarianism, volkish nationalism, ethnopluralism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism, antifeminism, and Euroscepticism. The analysis shows that these ideological features are sometimes strategically interlinked for effect and used to justify specific political demands such as the stronger regulation of immigration and the exclusion of Muslims. This much-needed volume will be of particular interest to students and researchers of German politics, populism, social movements, party politics, and right-wing extremism.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of radical right populism in Germany. It gives an overview of historical developments of the phenomenon and its current appearance. It examines three of the main far-right organizations in Germany: the radical right populist party AfD (Alternative for Germany), Pegida (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamification of the Occident), and the Identitarian Movement. The book investigates the positions of these groups as expressed in programmes, publications, and statements of party leaders and movement activists. It explores their history, ideologies, strategies, and their main activists and representatives, as well as the overlap between the groups. The ideological positions examined include populism, nativism, authoritarianism, volkish nationalism, ethnopluralism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism, antifeminism, and Euroscepticism. The analysis shows that these ideological features are sometimes strategically interlinked for effect and used to justify specific political demands such as the stronger regulation of immigration and the exclusion of Muslims. This much-needed volume will be of particular interest to students and researchers of German politics, populism, social movements, party politics, and right-wing extremism.

Right-wing populism has been on the rise in Europe and elsewhere. Germanys foremost populist party is called Alternative for Germany (AfD). Founded in 2013 and entering Germanys federal parliament in 2017, the AfD increasingly moved towards right-wing extremism. Today, the party is Germanys most successful nationalistic party. Following the populist playbook, the AfD started off with a simple neoliberal and anti-Europe message, but soon moved towards the extreme right. By 2017 the AfDs ultra-nationalistic wing had successfully outmanoeuvred the partys moderate and neoliberal leader Frauke Petry. Written from the standpoint of openness, pluralism, liberalism and democracy, this book examines the AfDs rise to fame, its successes, and the partys ideological links dating back to German Nazism of the 1930s. The author illuminates the partys ideological and institutional links to present-day Neo-Nazis; its close associations to the right-wing street movement Pegida; the recruitment of right-wing extremists and former Neo-Nazis into its parliamentarian ranks; its xenophobic, anti-Muslim, racist and anti-Semitic ideologies; and its relationship to the neo-fascist Identity Movement. A historical overview positions the AfD within Germanys political landscape. The work engages with the make-up of AfD voters and electoral successes; the partys relationship to anti-Semitism; and its dreams of re-establishing a mythical Aryan Volksgemeinschaft. Close attention is paid to the AfDs demagogic and nationalistic leader, Bjoern Hoecke, as well as the partys admiration for the radical right of neighbouring Austria. A final chapter examines the fascist character of the AfD as measured against Umberto Ecos fourteen elements of Ur-Fascism. Three questions are posed: Will the AfD lead to the end of German democracy? Is Germany moving towards another Third Reich? Is there another Hitler in the making?

Recent years have seen a surge of populism across the Western world, exposing the vulnerabilities of liberal democracy and driving the international political agenda to the right. In Germany in 2017 the recently founded far-right populist party—the Alternative for Germany (AfD)—swept into the Bundestag, claiming to be the voice of the people against a corrupt liberal elite and overturning the delicate postwar political consensus in Germany. We are the People analyzes the sudden growth and radicalization of the AfD, from its Euroskeptic beginnings in 2013 to its increasing extremism. Penny Bochum shows us how the leaders’ use of inflammatory, xenophobic, and even Nazi-era language mirrors that of emerging far-right forces across much of the Western world. At the same time, through a lucid examination of the group’s ideology, Bochum shows how their brand of populism is distinct and based on German experiences and history.

Germany's newest right-wing party, Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD), burst on to Germany's political stage in 2013 and has achieved more success than any German right-wing party since 1949. The resurgence of the German right wing has caused concern for many who still remember the legacy of National Socialism, and the wave of right-wing populism that has swept Europe has exacerbated those fears. Is AfD's rise, although significant, really a threat to the established German political order? Can AfD really influence German politics and foreign policy? These questions are answered by placing AfD's rise into the historical context of Germany's far-right wing since 1949. The analysis of all right-wing parties since 1949, to include the AfD, reveals key continuities in the German extreme right. These continuities have contributed to the inability of the far right to gain political representation at the national level or to sustain long-term success at the state level. The analysis indicates that AfD is simply the latest iteration, or fifth wave, of the German extreme right since 1949, and is likely to fail just like all its predecessors. Although AfD's long-term success is unlikely, its influence on contemporary German politics has been substantial. AfD's political activism has called Merkel's rule into question, potentially creating the possibility for new coalitions that will shift political power toward the center-left.This significance of this research is two-fold. First, this thesis provides a holistic assessment of AfD as a post-war German far right-wing party. The examination of German politics since 1949, with in-depth focus placed on the party dynamics, political programs, and electoral patterns, provides, the proper historical context in which to assess AfD's rise in Germany. Close study of the German far right since 1949 reveals several continuities that contributed to the far right's collective failure in German politics. The establishment of these continuities creates a common profile for the German far right since 1949 and provides a valuable tool that can be used to assess AfD, and any future German far right-wing party.Second, this thesis examines the potential impact of AfD's rise on contemporary German politics and foreign policy. This analysis includes how a young, inexperienced party like AfD successfully leveraged Germans' fear to push its nationalist agenda and routinely punch above its weight in the German political arena. This analysis is extended to assess the potential impact that AfD could have on German Foreign policy during a period of trans-Atlantic uncertainty. The analysis is then extrapolated to the international level, and assesses AfD's potential impact on European solidarity and security.To realize the purpose of this thesis, a review of two different but related themes was required. The first theme was dedicated to the history of German politics since 1945. The examination focused on literature centered on the post-war development of the German government, politics, and foreign policy since 1945. The second theme was dedicated to the examination of European far right-wing politics. The examination focused heavily on German right-wing political trends and how they fit into the European far right.

Contemporary Germany is a modern industrial democracy admired throughout the world. Many Germans believe that they live in the 'best Germany' that has ever existed. Yet there are dissenting voices: individuals and groups that reject cosmopolitanism, globalization and multiculturalism, and yearn for the more homogeneous country of earlier times. They are part of a global movement, often characterized as populist, that values tradition over innovation or constant change. In Germany, such people are routinely portrayed as reactionary or even neo- fascist. The present study seeks to provide a portrait of these individuals and their organizations. Very little has been written in English about the cultural figures who play a role in this movement. When the political side is discussed--whether in its manifestation as a party (the Alternative for Germany) or a citizens' group (PEGIDA)--the cultural dimension is usually ignored. Jay Julian Rosellini places the so-called New Right in the context of currents in German culture and history that differ from those in other countries. With Germany the dominant country in the European Union, economically and politically, this volume offers an essential view of its current conditions, future prospects and political particularities.

This book provides the first systematic and comparative analysis of the German right-wing populist protest movement “PEGIDA”. It offers an in-depth reconstruction of the movement’s historical development, its organisational structure and its programmatic orientation. It depicts the protestors and their motivations, reactions in politics, media and society, and PEGIDA’s European network. The volume presents and compares the results of scientific surveys among PEGIDA-participants and brings them into the context of long-time studies on political culture in Germany, representing a comprehensive study of the emergence of contemporary right-wing populist movements. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics and students focusing on comparative politics, (right-wing) populism, protest movements in western democracies, and political culture in Germany, as well as journalists, political educators and policy makers.