A Transnational Extreme Right? New Right-Wing Tactics and the Use of the Internet

Th e Internet is assuming a growing importance for civ il society organizations, including the radical ones, for the freedom it offers to express political claims and for organizing mobilization and strategies, both nationally and tr ansnationally. A crucial subject for scientific enquiry, as well as for policy analysts, is therefo re to empirically investigate the role of this medium as a potential substitute for important face -to-face social and political processes. In this article, we combine quantitative and qualitati ve data derived from 45 interviews with representatives of the main extreme right organizat ions in six European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK) and the USA, as well as a formalized web content analysis of 336 right-wing websites, and will inves tigate the degree and forms of ‘trasnationalization’ of the extreme right (in term s of mobilization, issues, targets, organizational contacts, etc.) and show how these d evelopments can be related (although indirectly) to the online activism of these groups. The main differences and similarities among the different types of right-wing organizations (bo th political parties and not party organizations, even youth sub-cultural groups) and countries will be demonstrated.