This thesis endeavours to answer an empirical puzzle, namely, how an extreme-right party, the Greek Golden Dawn, transitions from movement to party (thus de-radicalising its political behaviour), or from party to movement (thus radicalising its behaviour), following periods of profound changes to its external and internal living conditions. The thesis builds a bridge between the literature on far-right parties, social movements and party change & behaviour.
In answering this, the thesis advances a framework of extreme-right behaviour and change, which aims to examine the conditions (when, how, where) under which change in political behaviour of electorally successful extreme-right parties plays out. It argues that extreme-right parties are movement-parties, oscillating between a party face and a movement face, manifested across three political arenas: grassroots, electoral and parliamentary. The thesis posits: (1) Political praxis and issue salience are appropriate party behavioural dimensions, allowing identification of vast amounts of behavioural change (2) Political & institutional actors and leadership & factions largely define the external and internal conditions, respectively, within which change in the behaviour of extreme-right parties, towards de-radicalisation or radicalisation, is more or less likely. To this, the thesis develops alternative and case-specific hypotheses, with regards to both scenarios (de-radicalisation and radicalisation), on extreme-right parties and on the Golden Dawn.
The thesis utilises a qualitative case-study methodology through which it is able to delve into an in-depth, qualitative analysis that allows it to identify what the case under investigation is accomplishing and how. By analysing an extensive amount of primary data, and through the development of a novel empirical approach that systematically measures the behaviour of extreme-right parties across two faces and the three main arenas (political impact-claims), the thesis tests the alternative hypotheses and solves the empirical puzzle.
