The political legitimization of extreme far-right parties in European Union member states : a case study on Greece’s golden dawn

Abstract

This dissertation describes the political trend by which extreme far-right parties in European Union Member States have found political legitimacy over the past five years. Theoretical requirements for a party to be considered ‘politically legitimate,’ ‘extreme,’ and ‘far-right’ are discussed in order to accurately assess and compare many extremeright parties that have found unprecedented success—gaining both political and social legitimacy—in their respective country. By closely examining the Golden Dawn party in Greece, this dissertation examines not only one of the most significant current threats to European democracy, but a party that has successfully utilized the Racist Platform Transformation Strategy and has yielded the benefits of it; namely, power. This research is meant to inspire political analysts to follow and evaluate the progress of these parties in an effort to prevent gross abuses of minority rights, as well as further damage to European multicultural democracies during this rise in ultranationalist sentiment.