Becoming a young radical right activist: Biographical pathways of the members of radical right organisations in Poland and Germany
Becoming a young radical right activist: Biographical pathways of the members of radical right organisations in Poland and Germany
StatusPost-Print
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Authors
Myrczik, Janina
Kajta, Justyna
Buckenleib, Arthur
Karolak, Mateusz
Liedtke, Marius
Mrozowicki, Adam
Trappmann, Vera
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Date
2025-08
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Current Sociology
Issue
5
Volume
73
Pages
Pages
754-775
ISSN
0011-3921
1461-7064
1461-7064
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Weblink
Access date
2025-08-08
Abstract PL
Abstract EN
With the increasing popularity of the radical right, much research has tried to explain the motives of voters. Less attention has been paid to the motives of people to become radical right activists – specifically young people, a group with a high tendency to join right-wing parties. Within the context of the internationalisation of the radical right, this article draws on 28 narrative interviews between 2019 and 2021 with young radical right activists in Poland and Germany, two countries with considerably different political and discursive opportunity structures. We propose to recognise a new motive for becoming involved in political activism: career-oriented individual self-realisation in Germany, as opposed to fulfilling a duty to the nation in Poland. While we identify two different types of radical activism within the different contexts – the anti-establishment populist career type in Germany and the anti-political intellectualism/elitism type in Poland – they both point to the normalisation of the radical right in the two countries.
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Keywords PL
Keywords EN
Biographical research
comparative analysis
nationalism
radical right
youth activism
comparative analysis
nationalism
radical right
youth activism
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