The Golden Dawn’s ‘Nationalist Solution’: Explaining the Rise of the Far Right in Greece

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Sofia Vasilopoulou, Daphne Halikiopoulou

   Pages 1-14

3. The Rise of the Golden Dawn in the Context of the Greek Crisis

   • Sofia Vasilopoulou, Daphne Halikiopoulou

   Pages 15-30

4. Who Supports the Golden Dawn? An Analysis of the Disillusioned Voter

   • Sofia Vasilopoulou, Daphne Halikiopoulou

   Pages 31-49

5. The Myth of Social Decadence: The Golden Dawn’s Populist Nation-Statism

   • Sofia Vasilopoulou, Daphne Halikiopoulou

   Pages 50-63

6. The Myth of National Rebirth: The Golden Dawn’s Populist Ultra-nationalism

   • Sofia Vasilopoulou, Daphne Halikiopoulou

   Pages 64-77

7. Conclusion

   • Sofia Vasilopoulou, Daphne Halikiopoulou

   Pages 78-88

8. Back Matter

   Pages 89-110

   PDF

This book contextualizes the rise of the Golden Dawn within the Eurozone crisis. The authors argue that the movement's success may be explained by the extent to which it was able to respond to the crisis of the nation-state and democracy in Greece with its 'nationalist solution': the twin fascist myths of social decadence and national rebirth.

• Golden Dawn
• crisis
• Greece
• far right
• fascism
• nationalism
• voting behavior
• democracy
• Euro area
• voter
• european union politics

“The Golden Dawn’s ‘Nationalist Solution’ is a short study that provides a solid overview of the Golden Dawn’s ideology, discourse and the factors that shaped its rise. … the book is a useful addition to the literature about postwar fascism, European politics and political violence.” (Ryan Shaffer, Patterns of Prejudice, Vol. 51 (5), 2017)

"At last the fragmented media coverage of the Golden Dawn in English has been supplemented by a sustained, comprehensive study of its origins, social base, ideology, and place within the extended family of ultranationalist and neo-populist movements in Europe. The Greek authors not only write in a sophisticated, concise academic register that is a lesson to many native speakers, but show a refreshing familiarity with comparative fascism studies seen through the lens of the New Consensus. As a result Europe's most fully developed neo-fascist party can be seen in High Definition, not just providing insights about the Golden Dawn's derivativeness and originality, but allowing marginalized inter-war fascist movements to be understood as complex, living, constantly evolving social and political entities, that no matter how impotent, can still poison democracies and incite violence against mythic enemies. This book does for fascism what Jurassic Park did for dinosaurs.' -Roger Griffin, author of The Nature of Fascism and Modernism and Fascism

'The authors provide solid reference tools to understand the widening of the extreme right-wing party arena in Greece. Focusing on the Golden Dawn, the authors offer a dispassionate and scientific analysis that places the rise of a pro-Nazi militia in a complex of causal links between demand-side and supply-side explanations. This is an important contribution to our comprehension of the electoral breakthrough of Golden Dawn.' - Vassiliki Georgiadou, Associate Professor of Political Science, Panteion University, Athens, Greece

• University of York, UK

  Sofia Vasilopoulou

• University of Reading, UK

  Daphne Halikiopoulou

Author Sofia Vasilopoulou: Sofia Vasilopoulou is a Lecturer in Politics in the Department of Politics at University of York, UK. Author Daphne Halikiopoulou: Daphne Halikiopoulou is a Lecturer in Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at University of Reading, UK.

Policies and ethics