Multiculturalism is Dead, Long Live Nationalism: The Identitarian Projects of the Centre Right and the Far Right in Great Britain, France and Germany
Abstract
Inspired by the coherent anti-multiculturalist rhetoric of the centre right and far right political parties in Great Britain, France and Germany in 2011 and guided by the critical theory, constructionism and critical discourse analysis, the thesis compares and contrasts centre right and far right political discourses to reveal convergences and divergences in their identitarian projects. The thesis suggests that the theoretical distinction between the legitimate centre right and the dangerous far right is not fully empirically justified in the area of identitarian politics as the centre right vying with the far right for electoral success and the far right eager to break the cordon sanitaire share many commonalities in their topic problematization and discursive strategies of legitimation as well as in the potential effects of their respective discourses. The thesis argues that both the centre right and the far right resort to the risk framework to legitimate their interest in and exploitation of identity, which results in stigmatisation, securitisation and criminalisation of the threatening Other. It demonstrates that the far right seeking mainstreaming resorts to the discourse of rights and the problematization of seemingly legitimate political issues, such as the affirmative action, multiculturalism, supra-nationalism and globalisation, which leads to the convergence of the two political camps in their covert reification of the mythical majority’s privilege and pre-emption of minorities’ claims-making. It also demonstrates that the centre right seeking political relevance exploits the topics and discursive moves traditionally associated with the far right, such as the risks of ‘uncontrolled’ immigration, ‘failed’ integration and ‘growing’ insecurity. Examining the two camp’s civic and nationalist national identity markers, the thesis demonstrates that, despite the alleged acceptability of the civic markers associated with the centre right, both camps and types of markers normalise the concepts of intrinsic national homogeneity and inter-national incompatibility, legitimate the surveillance and stigmatisation of difference and reify the moral and cultural superiority of the mythical majority defined by Christian European ancestry.
Description
Keywords
Political Science, Sociology
Citation
Litviniuc, A. (2016). Multiculturalism is Dead, Long Live Nationalism: The Identitarian Projects of the Centre Right and the Far Right in Great Britain, France and Germany (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27025