Across Europe radical right-wing parties are winning increasing electoral support. The Dark
Side of European Integration argues that this rising nationalism and the mobilization of the
radical right are the consequences of European economic integration. The European economic
project has produced a cultural backlash in the form of nationalist radical right ideologies.
This assessment relies on a detailed analysis of the electoral rise of radical right parties in
Western and Eastern Europe. Contrary to popular belief economic performance and immigration
rates are not the only factors that determine the far right´s success. There are other
political and social factors that explain why in post-socialist Eastern European countries such
parties had historically been weaker than their potential which they have now started to
fulfill increasingly. Using in-depth interviews with radical right activists in Ukraine Alina
Polyakova also explores how radical right mobilization works on the ground through social
networks allowing new insights into how social movements and political parties interact.
